Throughout his career he tried to establish a state capable of resisting foreign aggression, and his writings are concerned with the practical problems a ruler faces and with the principles on which such a state is founded. So in the Prince he describes how a prince can acquire and maintain political power. And he thought that a prince is not bound by any traditional ethical norms, he argues that all means are allowed as long as the prince can maintain political and social stability in the state. For example he argues that it is better to be feared than loved. However the prince should avoid being hated which he can easily accomplish by not confiscating the property of his subjects, he says “people more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their inheritance”. And the reason he says this is because he thinks that “all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it” and “when neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content. And if we dig deeper in to Machiavelli’s thoughts we find that most of them wont probably work in modern politics anymore. Machiavelli says “Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his preservation”. “One change leaves the way open for the introduction of others”. “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things”.

So this means that most or all of his ideas are only good for the ruler not people and that was the meaning of the prince, to explain how to gain and maintain power. Not how to rule a state so the people would be happy. How to rule a state so it grows strong and prosperous. Machiavelli also says: ”A prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take up any other thing for his study, but war and its organization and discipline, for that is the only art that is necessary to one who commands”. I think that this particular quote is totally true, war is so much more than just killing and destroying. Sun Tzu says that “the essence of warfare is the manipulation of ambiguity So to master the art of war means that you are “the minister of the peoples fate and the arbiter of the nations destiny” as Sun Tzu puts it. If a ruler were to do as Machiavelli advises than that ruler would surely be a strong if not invincible ruler. But many of his ideas are ethically wrong so those who take advise from his writings usually don’t tell it but Machiavelli has been immensely influential in the course of history. All he wanted in his life was to unite Italy and protect it against aggression from foreign powers. Machiavelli was a true patriot.