Chapter 2 of 27
The Prince, Chapter I: How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are, and by What Means They Are Acquired
by Niccolò Machiavelli · 54s · read by Earbook narrator
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All states, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or principalities.
Principalities are either hereditary, in which the family has been long established; or they are new.
The new are either entirely new, as was Milan to Francesco Sforza, or they are, as it were, members annexed to the hereditary state of the prince who has acquired them, as was the kingdom of Naples to that of the King of Spain.
Such dominions thus acquired are either accustomed to live under a prince, or to live in freedom; and are acquired either by the arms of the prince himself, or of others, or else by fortune or by ability.
All chapters of The Prince
- 1Introduction
- 2Chapter I: How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are, and by What Means They Are Acquired
- 3Chapter II: Concerning Hereditary Principalities
- 4Chapter III: Concerning Mixed Principalities
- 5Chapter IV: Why the Kingdom of Darius, Conquered by Alexander, Did Not Rebel Against the Successors of Alexander at His Death
- 6Chapter V: Concerning the Way to Govern Cities or Principalities Which Lived Under Their Own Laws Before They Were Annexed
- 7Chapter VI: Concerning New Principalities Which Are Acquired by One’s Own Arms and Ability
- 8Chapter VII: Concerning New Principalities Which Are Acquired Either by the Arms of Others or by Good Fortune
- 9Chapter VIII: Concerning Those Who Have Obtained a Principality by Wickedness
- 10Chapter IX: Concerning a Civil Principality
- 11Chapter X: Concerning the Way in Which the Strength of All Principalities Ought to Be Measured
- 12Chapter XI: Concerning Ecclesiastical Principalities
- 13Chapter XII: How Many Kinds of Soldiery There Are, and Concerning Mercenaries
- 14Chapter XIII: Concerning Auxiliaries, Mixed Soldiery, and One’s Own
- 15Chapter XIV: That Which Concerns a Prince on the Subject of the Art of War
- 16Chapter XV: Concerning Things for Which Men, and Especially Princes, Are Praised or Blamed
- 17Chapter XVI: Concerning Liberality and Meanness
- 18Chapter XVII: Concerning Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than Feared
- 19Chapter XVIII: Concerning the Way in Which Princes Should Keep Faith
- 20Chapter XIX: That One Should Avoid Being Despised and Hated
- 21Chapter XX: Are Fortresses, and Many Other Things to Which Princes Often Resort, Advantageous or Hurtful?
- 22Chapter XXI: How a Prince Should Conduct Himself So as to Gain Renown
- 23Chapter XXII: Concerning the Secretaries of Princes
- 24Chapter XXIII: How Flatterers Should Be Avoided
- 25Chapter XXIV: Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their States
- 26Chapter XXV: What Fortune Can Effect in Human Affairs and How to Withstand Her
- 27Chapter XXVI: An Exhortation to Liberate Italy from the Barbarians