Free Essays on The Prince

Response to â€Å"The Prince† My outlook was completely changed about the life of a prince after reading this piece. I predicted that it would be the same old story of the courageous and fearless prince; instead, I found it to be completely opposite. Basically throughout this whole paper, Machiavelli writes about any ruler wishing to stay in power must â€Å"learn how not to be good†. He wrote about it from a completely different perspective than what I had expected. He talks about ignoring morality at certain times so that a â€Å"prince† can remain a prince. When people think of the fairy tale prince, they usually think of someone who has strong morals and is courageous and trustworthy; yet Machiavelli writes that a prince â€Å"should know how to enter into evil when necessity commands†. He praised Cesare Borgia and Hannibal because they were cruel, and he insists that it is necessary for a prince to be cruel at times. According to him, mercy, faithfulness, humanness, forthrightness, and religion are all qualities that a prince must appear to have. He says that it â€Å"is not necessary for a prince to have all the above qualities, but it is very necessary for him to appear to have them.† He claims that people perceives one another as what one seems to be, only a few people perceive one as they really are. I agree with him here. Apparently because he had figured this out, he is able to write about how a prince should act. There are two particular examples that stood out in the story that I want to use to explain how he sees the life that a prince should live. These two examples are the main points that I took away with me, maybe because they even have some personal significance in my life. The first example jumped out at me when he wrote, â€Å"For men forget more quickly the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.† This stuck with me because this phrase is so true. People remember if something they inherited is stole... Free Essays on The Prince Free Essays on The Prince Response to â€Å"The Prince† My outlook was completely changed about the life of a prince after reading this piece. I predicted that it would be the same old story of the courageous and fearless prince; instead, I found it to be completely opposite. Basically throughout this whole paper, Machiavelli writes about any ruler wishing to stay in power must â€Å"learn how not to be good†. He wrote about it from a completely different perspective than what I had expected. He talks about ignoring morality at certain times so that a â€Å"prince† can remain a prince. When people think of the fairy tale prince, they usually think of someone who has strong morals and is courageous and trustworthy; yet Machiavelli writes that a prince â€Å"should know how to enter into evil when necessity commands†. He praised Cesare Borgia and Hannibal because they were cruel, and he insists that it is necessary for a prince to be cruel at times. According to him, mercy, faithfulness, humanness, forthrightness, and religion are all qualities that a prince must appear to have. He says that it â€Å"is not necessary for a prince to have all the above qualities, but it is very necessary for him to appear to have them.† He claims that people perceives one another as what one seems to be, only a few people perceive one as they really are. I agree with him here. Apparently because he had figured this out, he is able to write about how a prince should act. There are two particular examples that stood out in the story that I want to use to explain how he sees the life that a prince should live. These two examples are the main points that I took away with me, maybe because they even have some personal significance in my life. The first example jumped out at me when he wrote, â€Å"For men forget more quickly the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.† This stuck with me because this phrase is so true. People remember if something they inherited is stole...