Reviews for The Prince & Other Stories

The average rating for The Prince & Other Stories based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-01-02 00:00:00 John Macrone "The Prince" is not only timeless, but a great book to read for anyone interested in the combination between human psychology and state development. I think the translator did a beautiful job on this particular edition, and I'm happy I bought myself a collectible one, bound in leather and giving off the feel of an old book. Reading it, I kept being surprised, as I always am, at how much humans have not changed for centuries and centuries on end. How can we bring about such development and yet remain just as we were in the olden days? I think "The Prince" should be mandatory reading for everyone in the world; it speaks of power, it speaks of organization, it speaks of states and taxes and war and criminality... it somehow whispers from the 15th century about what the 21st is. And I'm sure it will speak about the 22nd, the 23rd and so on...

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-08 00:00:00 Lotfij Jell A great political philosophy book, but it's a shame most people tend to miss the fact that the book is about how a leader should be pragmatic to ensure the best for the state, not how to be inconsiderate puppy-kicker. In fact, the oft-quoted line "It is better to be feared than loved" is false: the line, in full, is "From this there arises a dispute: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the contrary. The reply is that one should like to be both the one and the other, but as it is difficult to bring them together, it is much safercto be feared than to be loved if one of the two has to be lacking." As if to prove Machiavelli right, the Medici, whom Machiavelli wrote the book for, sought to be loved by everyone, but ultimately ended up in debt. Machiavelli then goes on to say that a prince should be feared in a way that does not inspire hatred. Add in the fact that Machiavelli actually supported a republic and we have a great example of irony: Machiavelli wasn't very machiavellian.