Lehal Library

xlv Translator’s Note And here is my own. A ruler will also be respected when he is a genuine friend and a genuine enemy, that is, when he declares himself unambiguously for one side and against the other. This policy will always bring better results than neutrality. For example, if you have two powerful neighbours who go to war, you may or may not have reason to fear the winner afterwards. Either way it will always be better to take sides and fight hard. If you do have cause to fear but stay neutral, you’ll still be gobbled up by the winner to the amusement and satisfaction of the loser; you’ll have no excuses, no defence and nowhere to hide. Because a winner doesn’t want ­half-­hearted friends who don’t help him in a crisis; and the loser will have nothing to do with you since you didn’t choose to fight alongside him and share his fate. A typically tricky moment in this passage comes when Machiavelli says of these neighbouring powers: . . . o sono di qualità che, vincendo uno di quelli, tu abbia a temere del vincitore, o no. Literally: . . . either they are of qualities that, winning one of those, you ought to fear the winner, or not. xlvi