Editing The Prince (section)

====In what way princes should keep their word (Chapter 18)====
Machiavelli notes that a prince is praised for keeping his word. However, he also notes that in reality, the most cunning princes succeed politically. A prince, therefore, should only keep his word when it suits his purposes, but do his utmost to maintain the illusion that he does keep his word and that he is reliable in that regard. Machiavelli advises the ruler to become a "great liar and deceiver", and that men are so easy to deceive, that the ruler won't have an issue with lying to others. He justifies this by saying that men are wicked, and never keep their words, therefore the ruler doesn't have to keep his.

As Machiavelli notes, "He should appear to be compassionate, faithful to his word, guileless, and devout. And indeed he should be so. But his disposition should be such that, if he needs to be the opposite, he knows how." As noted in chapter 15, the prince must appear to be virtuous in order to hide his actions, and he should be able to be otherwise when the time calls for it; that includes being able to lie, though however much he lies he should always keep the appearance of being truthful.

In this chapter, Machiavelli uses "beasts" as a metaphor for unscrupulous behavior. He states that while lawful conduct is part of the nature of men, a prince should learn how to use the nature of both men and beasts wisely to ensure the stability of his regime. In this chapter however, his focus is solely on the "beastly" natures.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oi2GDwAAQBAJ&q=leo+strauss+thoughts+on+machiavelli|title=Thoughts on Machiavelli|last=Strauss|first=Leo|date=2014-07-04|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226230979|language=en}}</ref> In particular, he compares the use of force to the "lion", and the use of deception to the "fox", and advises the prince to study them both. In employing this metaphor, Machiavelli apparently references ''[[De Officiis]]'' by the Roman orator and statesman [[Cicero]], and subverts its conclusion, arguing instead that dishonorable behavior is sometimes politically necessary.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Barlow|first=J.J.|date=Winter 1999|title=The Fox and the Lion: Machiavelli Replies to Cicero|journal=History of Political Thought|volume=20|issue=4|pages=627–645|jstor=26219664}}</ref>