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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
The essential handbook to capturing and manipulating power is a lot more historical and practical than you thought. Machiavelli’s infamous The Prince is a political treatise on how to keep and expand your power as a prince, who to keep close, who to keep far, how to appear and how to be, the book acts as a sort of manual on how to manipulate crowds into your favor and to switch facades faster you then you can say - “but isn’t this book unethical?” And to be honest, yes, it is, but if you’re like me and read it because it’s a classic, theres a lot of valuable information not for princes or royalty that is useful in day-to-day living for such people like you and I. Usually every one of Machiavelli’s commentaries can be interpreted into a more general and feasible everyday context. It’s whatever you want it to be, and interpretational is always my preferred style, so this book I found to be particularly interesting and enjoyable.
Notwithstanding its ethical concerns, such as how Machiavelli on multiple occasions lists how vile and self-serving man is and how a constant attainment of anything can only be successful under very precise and difficult conditions is one of the many things that were not-so-corrupt from the Prince. Real, true, and somehow an oracle of the past, present, and future cycles of war, politics, tyranny, and psychology.
Notwithstanding its ethical concerns, such as how Machiavelli on multiple occasions lists how vile and self-serving man is and how a constant attainment of anything can only be successful under very precise and difficult conditions is one of the many things that were not-so-corrupt from the Prince. Real, true, and somehow an oracle of the past, present, and future cycles of war, politics, tyranny, and psychology.
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
“it is much safer to be feared than to be loved, if one of the two has to be wanting”
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I appreciate this inquiry into the power of a prince for evaluating what is rather than what should be. For this reason, I find Machiavelli’s conclusions to be far more genuine than other philosophy in this vein.
And many have imagined republics and principalities that have never been seen or known to exist in truth; for it is so far from how one lives to how one should live that he who lets go of what is done for what should be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation.
-Chapter 15, Of those things which men and especially princes are praised or blamed
And now I know why the world is governed by megalomaniacal a**hats intent on practicing the politics of pre-industrial city states.
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
If you happen to be needing information on how to get and maintain a state in medieval Europe, this book is great. Otherwise, it's kind of very boring. The more interesting part is how much Machiavellian as an adjective for being ruthless and amoral is ubiquitous in our society and yet there's like 5 pages on that and the rest is "mercenaries are bad because they don't have any loyalty".
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced