And sincethe matter demands it, I must not fail to warn a prince, who by meansof secret favours has acquired a new state, that he must well considerthe reasons which induced those to favour him who did so and if it benot a natural affection towards him, but only discontent with theirgovernment, then he will only keep them friendly with great troubleand difficulty, for it will be impossible to satisfy them. But on this question one cannotspeak generally, for it varies so much with the individual I willonly say this, that those men who at the commencement of a princedomhave been hostile, if they are of a description to need assistance tosupport themselves, can always be gained over with the greatest ease,and they will be tightly held to serve the prince with fidelity,inasmuch as they know it to be very necessary for them to cancel bydeeds the bad impression which he had formed of them and thus theprince always extracts more profit from them than from those who,serving him in too much security, may neglect his affairs. Princes, especially new ones, have found more fidelity andassistance in those men who in the beginning of their rule weredistrusted than among those who in the beginning were trusted.Pandolfo Petrucci, Prince of Siena, ruled his state more by those whohad been distrusted than by others. The direct translation would yield a line like:quote:The new Prince must strive to hold close his allies, but it is of more importance to hold close his enemies.Here's how the Gutenberg edition translated (and cut heavily) that section:quote:5. ![]() It's from The Prince, no doubt about it.It's not a direct quote from the english translation though, it's a paraphrase of a translation of a direct quote from the original.
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