Ruler

"People are so naive that they like to believe what they want to hear."

The Ruler is Machiavelli's most important work, written as early as 1513 but published after his death in 1532. It was dedicated to the Medici family (specifically "the noble Lorenzo de' Medici"). The author's main concern was the unification of Italy, for a unified state, to be administered by a wise ruler, who should not hesitate to use any means, to ensure the welfare of the country, and for the sake of the cause, Machiavelli didn't care if it takes the form of a republic, or autocracy. The relentlessly imperious Cesaro Borgia served as a model ruler for Machiavelli. The concept of a double morality - the morality of private life and the morality of power - led to Machiavelli being labelled a cynic, but this is more a break in the concept of government: the ruler is no longer a servant of God, he is a servant of the state (a term first used by Machiavelli).

This slim volume of 26 chapters is a seminal work that contains political reflections revealing and describing the mechanisms of power, and has become the basis for the works of other theorists of power. Although Machiavelli pays little attention to the economic side of government, its lessons, that a good ruler should ensure "that no one should be afraid to improve property for fear, that he's gonna be taken away, or open a workshop for fear of taxes." is apparently not appreciated by the "rulers" to this day, apparently as opposed to the idea that "people are so simple-minded and so hung up on this, what they need right now, who wants to deceive, there's always someone, who can be fooled." Then the basic idea runs through the whole work: namely, that man should rely only on his own strength.