The Prince

“Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”

In Chapter 3, Machiavelli explores mixed principalities, meaning those states which have been annexed and added to an existing principality. When those states differ in language and customs, he recommends that the prince send colonies to those locations. That course of action will inevitably offend the people in those locations, so he remarks that the prince must decisively hurt those people so that they do not seek revenge. 

“The usual course of affairs is that, as soon as a powerful foreigner enters a country, all the subject states are drawn to him, moved by the hatred which they feel against the ruling power.”

According to Machiavelli, it is usually the case that those states which have been annexed by a prince will welcome foreign powers in to take over because of the hatred they feel toward the prince. To combat this, he recommends that the prince make himself the head and defender of his less powerful neighbors, weaken the more powerful amongst them, and take care that no foreigner as powerful as himself shall, by any accident, get a footing there. 

“The wish to acquire is in truth very natural and common, and men always do so when they can, and for this they will be praised not blamed; but when they cannot do so, yet wish to do so by any means, then there is folly and blame.” 

Machiavelli refers to the fact that it is human nature to want to obtain things, in this case territorial expansion. When princes do this successfully, they are praised, but when they try to and fail, they are blamed. This reflects the author’s broader philosophy of political realism, in which ethics are subordinate to acquiring and maintaining power.