Of the services in respect of which Quintius Fabius
received the surname of Maximus

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

TO

ZANOBI BUONDELMONTI AND COSIMO RUCELLAI

HEALTH.

I send you a gift, which if it answers ill the obligations I owe you, is
at any rate the greatest which Niccolo Machiavelli has it in his power
to offer. For in it I have expressed whatever I have learned, or have
observed for myself during a long experience and constant study of human
affairs. And since neither you nor any other can expect more at my
hands, you cannot complain if I have not given you more.

You may indeed lament the poverty of my wit, since what I have to say
is but poorly said; and tax the weakness of my judgment, which on many
points may have erred in its conclusions. But granting all this, I know
not which of us is less beholden to the other: I to you, who have forced
me to write what of myself I never should have written; or you to me,
who have written what can give you no content.

Take this, however, in the spirit in which all that comes from a friend
should be taken, in respect whereof we always look more to the intention
of the giver than to the quality of the gift. And, believe me, that in
one thing only I find satisfaction, namely, in knowing that while in
many matters I may have made mistakes, at least I have not been mistaken
in choosing you before all others as the persons to whom I dedicate
these Discourses; both because I seem to myself, in doing so, to have
shown a little gratitude for kindness received, and at the same time
to have departed from the hackneyed custom which leads many authors to
inscribe their works to some Prince, and blinded by hopes of favour or
reward, to praise him as possessed of every virtue; whereas with more
reason they might reproach him as contaminated with every shameful vice.

To avoid which error I have chosen, not those who are but those who from
their infinite merits deserve to be Princes; not such persons as have it
in their power to load me with honours, wealth, and preferment, but such
as though they lack the power, have all the will to do so. For men, if
they would judge justly, should esteem those who are, and not those
whose means enable them to be generous; and in like manner those
who know how to govern kingdoms, rather than those who possess the
government without such knowledge. For Historians award higher praise
to Hiero of Syracuse when in a private station than to Perseus