although he may have the
authority and the very best cause. For it is a far nobler virtue
to endure wrong to one's authority than to risk property and
person, if it is advantageous to the subjects; since worldly
rights attach only to temporal goods.

Hence, it is a very foolish saying: I have a right to it,
therefore I will take it by storm and keep it, although all sorts
of misfortune may come to others thereby. So we read of the
Emperor Octavianus,[46] that he did not wish to make war, however
just his cause might be, unless there were sure indications of
greater benefit than harm, or at least that the harm would not be
intolerable, and said: "War is like fishing with a golden net;
the loss risked is always greater than the catch can be." For he
who guides a wagon must walk far otherwise than if he were
walking alone; when alone he may walk, jump, and do as he will;
but when he drives, he must so guide and adapt himself that the
wagon and horses can follow him, and regard that more than his
own will. So also a prince leads a multitude with him and must
not walk and act as he wills, but as the multitude can,
considering their need and advantage more than his will and
pleasure. For when a prince rules after his own mad will and
follows his own opinion, he is like a mad driver, who rushes
straight ahead with horse and wagon, through bushes, thorns,
ditches, water, up hill and down dale, regardless of roads and
bridges; he will not drive long, all will go to smash.

Therefore it would be most profitable for rulers, that they read,
or have read to them, from youth on, the histories, both in
sacred and in profane books, in which they would find more
examples and skill in ruling than in all the books of law; as we
read that the kings of Persia did, Esther vi. [Esth. 6:1 ff.] For
examples and histories benefit and teach more than the laws and
statutes: there actual experience teaches, here untried and
uncertain words.

[Sidenote: Good Works for Rulers]

[Sidenote: Economic Reforms: Gluttony]

XVI. Three special, distinct works all rulers might do in our
times, particularly in our lands. First, to make an end of the
horrible gluttony and drunkenness, not only because of the
excess, but also because of its expense. For through seasonings
and spices and the like, without which men could well live, no
little loss of temporal wealth has come and daily is coming upon
our lands. To prevent these two great evils would truly