The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli

"The Prince" by Nicolo Machiavelli is his best-known book contains several maxims concerning politics. Instead of the more traditional target audience of a hereditary prince, it concentrates on the possibility of a "new prince". To retain power, the hereditary prince must carefully balance the interests of a variety of institutions to which the people are accustomed. By contrast, a new prince has the more difficult task of ruling: He must first stabilize his newfound power to build an enduring political structure. Machiavelli suggests that the social benefits of stability and security can be achieved in the face of moral corruption. Machiavelli believed that public and private morality had to be understood as two different things to rule well.

Chapter Times:
(0:00:00) Chapter 1. How many kinds of principalities there are, and by what means they are acquired
(0:00:44) Chapter 2. Concerning hereditary principalities
(0:02:02) Chapter 3. Concerning mixed principalities
(0:16:16) Chapter 4. Why the kingdom of Darius, conquered by Alexander, did not rebel against the successors of Alexander at his death
(0:20:53) Chapter 5. Concerning the way to govern cities or principalities that lived under their own laws before they were annexed
(0:23:04) Chapter 6. Concerning new principalities which are acquired by one's own arms and ability
(0:29:05) Chapter 7. Concerning new principalities which are acquired either by the arms of others or by good fortune
(0:41:36) Chapter 8. Concerning those who have obtained a principality by wickedness
(0:49:19) Chapter 9. Concerning a civil principality
(0:55:30) Chapter 10. Concerning the way in which the strength of all principalities ought to be measured
(0:58:49) Chapter 11. Concerning ecclesiastical principalities
(1:03:15) Chapter 12. How many kinds of soldiery there are, and concerning mercenaries
(1:11:38) Chapter 13. Concerning auxiliaries, mixed soldiery, and one's own
(1:18:01) Chapter 14. That which concerns a prince on the subject of the art of war
(1:22:24) Chapter 15. Concerning things for which men, and especially princes, are praised or blamed
(1:25:07) Chapter 16. Concerning liberality and meanness
(1:29:12) Chapter 17. Concerning cruelty and clemency, and whether it is better to be loved than feared
(1:34:33) Chapter 18. Concerning the way in which princes should keep faith
(1:39:23) Chapter 19. That one should avoid being despised and hated
(1:56:57) Chapter 20. Are fortresses, and many other things to which princes often resort, advantageous or hurtful?
(2:04:22) Chapter 21. How a prince should conduct himself so as to gain renown
(2:10:31) Chapter 22. Concerning the secretaries of princes
(2:12:44) Chapter 23. How flatterers should be avoided
(2:16:08) Chapter 24. Why the princes of Italy have lost their states
(2:18:39) Chapter 25. What fortune can affect in human affairs and how to withstand her
(2:24:22) Chapter 26. An exhortation to liberate Italy from the barbarians