DEDICATION
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI TO
ZANOBI BUONDELMONTI AND TO COSIMO RUCELLAI
GREETINGS.
I send you a present which if it is not equal to the obligations that
I have toward you, it is one which without doubt the best that Niccolo
Machiavelli has been able to offer you. Because in it I have expressed
what I know and what I have learned through a long experience and a continuing
study of the things of the world. And neither you nor others being able
to desire more of me, I have not offered you more. You may well complain
of the poverty of my endeavor since these narrations of mine are poor,
and of the fallacy of (my) judgement when I deceive myself in many parts
of my discussion. Which being so, I do not know which of us should be
less obligated to the other, either I to you who have forced me to write
that which by myself I would not have written, or you to me that having
written I have not satisfied you. Accept this, therefore, in that manner
that all things are taken from friends, where always the intention of
the sender is more than the quality of the thing that is sent. And believe
me I obtain satisfaction from this when I think that even if I should
have been deceived on many occasions, I know I have not erred on this
one in having selected you, to whom above all other of my friends I address
(dedicate) these Discourses; as much because in doing this it appears
to me I have shown some gratitude for the benefits I have received, as
well because it appears to me I have departed from the common usage of
those writers, who usually (always) address (dedicate) their works to
some Prince, and blinded by ambition and avarice laud him for all his
virtuous qualities when they should be censuring him for all his shameful
parts. Whence I, so as not to incur this error, have selected, not those
who are Princes, but those who by their infinite good qualities would
merit to be such; (and) not to those who could load me with rank, honors,
and riches, but to those who although unable to would want to do so. For
men, when they want to judge rightly, should esteem those who are generous,
not those who are able to be so; and likewise those who govern a Kingdom,
not those who can but have not the knowledge. And writers lauded more
Hiero of Syracuse when he was a private citizen than Perseus the Macedonian
when he was King, for to Hiero nothing was lacking to be a Prince than
the Principality, and the other did not possess any part of the King than
the Kingdom. Enjoy this, therefore, whether good or bad, that you yourselves
have wanted; and if you should continue in this error that these thoughts
of mine are acceptable, I shall not fail to continue the rest of the history
according as I promised you in the beginning. Farewell.
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