{"id":85,"date":"2012-12-22T14:22:16","date_gmt":"2012-12-22T19:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/?page_id=85"},"modified":"2013-01-25T16:51:08","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T21:51:08","slug":"machiavellian-misquotes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/machiavelli\/addenda\/machiavellian-misquotes\/","title":{"rendered":"Machiavellian Misquotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Machiavelli today is commonly known by two things.<\/strong> One is the statement that, \u2018the end justifies the means.\u2019 The other is by the adjective \u2018Machiavellian,\u2019 meaning something evil, underhanded, treacherous, cunning or sneaky in politics. Neither is accurate.<\/p>\n

Many people recognize that he wrote The Prince<\/em> (Il Principe), but few modern municipal politicians can lay claim to actually having read it (let alone The Discourses<\/em> or his other works). And from that stems several misconceptions about what he said and didn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n

Machiavelli did not<\/strong><\/em> write \u2018the end justifies the means.\u2019 It is a modern condensation \u2013 and somewhat of a simplification \u2013 of an idea expressed in The Prince<\/em>. However memorable it is, he had a lot more to say about politics and the behaviour of rulers than that one line.<\/p>\n

Machiavelli was just being a realist. He certainly was not a hedonist like Aleister Crowley who wrote,<\/p>\n

\u201cDo what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Machiavelli believed strongly in law, as long as it served the greater good of the state.<\/p>\n

Machiavelli constantly reminds readers that rulers need to make tough decisions to maintain order, and at times be cruel in the short term in order to achieve order or happiness and stability in the long term.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where \u2018the end justifies the means\u2019 comes in. Machiavelli wrote that the effect of a ruler\u2019s actions mattered more than the deeds themselves, as long as the end was good for the state.<\/p>\n

Instead of \u2018the end justifies the means,\u2019 a paraphrase for Machiavelli might better be taken from a line in Nick Lowe\u2019s song: You gotta be cruel to be kind in the right measure<\/em>, or this line from Hamlet\u2019s speech:<\/p>\n

\u201cI must be cruel only to be kind.
\nThus bad begins and worse remains behind.\u201d
\nWilliam Shakespeare: Hamlet Act 3, scene 4<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nor did Machiavelli write, \u2018Never to attempt to win by force what can be won by deception<\/em>,\u2019 in The Prince<\/em>. That is a mis-quote, likely paraphrased from The Discourses<\/em>, Book III: 40, or Book II: 13. It might even derive from The Art of War<\/em> by Sun-Tzu. While popular on the Internet, this unsourced quote is not one of his maxims.<\/p>\n

He also did not write that other popular internet meme, \u2018I\u2019m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.<\/em>\u2019 That was actually said by US Republican Newt Gringrich, and is taken from a 1991 interview printed in the LA Times:<\/p>\n

Such jabs don\u2019t faze Gingrich. \u201cI\u2019m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it,\u201d he says. \u201cOf course people are going to resent that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other things Machiavelli did NOT<\/strong> say include these pseudo-quotes taken from various, mostly inaccurate and never verified, quotation sites online:<\/p>\n