Editing The Prince (section)

====Generosity vs. parsimony (Chapter 16)====
If a prince is overly generous to his subjects, Machiavelli asserts he will not be appreciated, and will only cause greed for more. Additionally, being overly generous is not economical, because eventually all resources will be exhausted. This results in higher taxes, and will bring grief upon the prince. Then, if he decides to discontinue or limit his generosity, he will be labeled as a miser. Thus, Machiavelli summarizes that guarding against the people's hatred is more important than building up a reputation for generosity. A wise prince should be willing to be more reputed a miser than be hated for trying to be too generous.

On the other hand: "of what is not yours or your subjects' one can be a bigger giver, as were [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]], [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]], and [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]], because spending what is someone else's does not take reputation from you but adds it to you; only spending your own hurts you".