make people good
and rich; but war and wicked rulers bring to naught everything that has
to do with temporal and eternal possessions.

XV. A prince must also be very wise and not at all times undertake to
enforce his own will, 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, 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. For examples and histories benefit and teach
more than the laws and statutes: there actual experience teaches, here
untried and uncertain words.

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 li