Machiavelli’s Rules of Political Power

In The Prince, Machiavelli establishes five sets of principles addressing achieving and retaining political power and the ways in which to ensure success. The five sets of principles are praise vs. censorship, liberality vs. parsimony, feared vs. loved, faith by honesty vs. trickery and fortune as a woman.
Ideally, during the first comparison, he is trying to establish the fact that men, whom are successful leaders, share a two-sided demeanor. The one side is that of the virtuous man for the people that need only see the good in people. The other side is the man of vices for the followers who see beyond the visions the eyes behold. To be successful a leader must understand the difference and be willing to take hold of his vices if that is what the situation requires.
The second excerpt conveys the opinion that to be success is achieved more often from being stingy and appearing liberal, than from being liberal and appearing stingy. The stingy leader gains wealth and arm...