I'm going to show you how great I am.

Yes, let's have fighting a fellow.

I just want to say from the bottom of me heart, I'd like to take this chance to

apologize to absolutely nobody.

Hello, and welcome to How to Take Over the World. This is Ben Wilson. Today we are talking about Nikolo Machiavelli, the Italian statesman, philosopher, and writer, best known for his book, The Prince.

Machiavelli is not known as someone who took over the world himself. He did hold office in the Republican government of his native city of Florence, but the real reason to study him is not known as someone who took over the world himself. He did hold office in the Republican government

of his native city of Florence,

but the real reason to study him is not for what he did,

but for what he wrote.

His book, The Prince, is one of the most famous books of all time.

For hundreds of years, it has given rulers a playbook

for seizing and maintaining power.

So of course, I would want to study him on this podcast.

The show is called How to Take Over the World. He basically wrote a handbook on exactly that, on taking over the world. Of course, there is a dark side to Machiavelli's reputation. He is known as someone who was ruthless, dishonest, violent, bent on the pursuit of power at any cost. And that reputation is not completely

unearned. So for example, we read in the prince, to possess them, he's talking about your

territories, securely, it is sufficient only to have wiped out the family line of the prince who

ruled them. Because so far as other things are concerned, men live peacefully as long as their

old way of life is maintained. And there is no change in customs. Okay, so he speaks very casually about wiping out an entire

family line. Presumably that includes children as well, right? Or another quote from the prince.

One must understand this. A prince and especially a new prince cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good, because in order to maintain the state, he must often act against his faith, against charity, against humanity, and against religion. And so it is necessary that he should have a mind ready to turn itself according to the way of the winds of fortune and the changing circumstances command him.

And here's the truth about Machiavelli. He doesn't care about right or wrong, at least not in the

context of what he's talking about in the prince and his other writings. It's like asking a

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