Machiavelli
By. Saray Navarrete, Zach Flowers, and Karime Mendoza
Birth and Death
Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469 in Florence, Italy and he died on June 21, 1527 also in Florence, Italy.
Machiavelli died at the age of fifty-eight years old.
Education
There is little information on Machiavelli's early life but it is known that he received the average education for a boy of the middle class, learning Latin and reading the classical Roman and Greek authors, particularly the histories.
Career
Machiavelli was a diplomat for a total of fourteen years in Italy's Florentine Republic during the Medici family's exile. He was also appointed to the office of the second chancery, which is a medieval writing office, that put Machiavelli in charge of the production of official Florentine government documents. Then after that he was made secretary of the Dieci di Libertà e Pace. Machiavelli was also in charge of the Florentine militia.
Machiavelli's Ideas
- Machiavelli believed that the safety of the state is the responsibility of the ruler and should be achieved by whatever is possible no matter what the ruler has to do. The ruler's personal morality is less significant then the safety of the state because he will be judged by what happens in the end not how he did it. In other words, a ruler cannot and won't honor his words.
- "In the actions of all men, especially princes, where there is no resource to justice, the end is all that counts. A prince should only be concerned with conquering or maintaining a state, for the means will always be judged to be honorable and praiseworthy by each and every person, because the masses always follow appearances and the outcomes of affairs, and the world is nothing than the masses." "A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise."
Quotes by Machiavelli
"It is better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both."
Explanation: Fear will control and maintain peace among the people much more efficiently than love.
"Never was anything great achieved without danger."
Explanation: You gotta risk it for the biscuit.