Nevertheless, he must take care to avoid misusing his kindness. Though seemingly immoral to say that cruelty is better and a stark contrast to the message of the New Testament of loving one another and having compassion for one another, Machiavelli maintains the idea that cruelty is necessary to maintain order. Machiavelli follows with "a prince, therefore, must be indifferent to the charge of cruelty if he is to keep his subjects loyal and united. He goes on to explain that a little cruelty for those deserving of punishment, for example criminals and malcontents, they suffer alone. .
Through their suffering, they are also made as an example to display the potential cruelty of the prince so that it instills fear among the subjects. A.J. Parel from Political Theory observed that "indeed, self-preservation is the initial way of articulating our tendency toward the good. Machiavelli, however, prefers to see the initial tendency toward self-preservation as a source of fear." On the other hand, if a prince is excessively kind, it is detrimental to his success as a ruler. A prince that is too kind allows order to break down and all suffer from the lack of leadership that leads to chaos, such as robbery and murder. Machiavelli says that "disorders harm the entire citizenry, while the executions ordered by a prince harm only a few individuals." Yet again, the Machiavellian prince uses fear as a tool to oppress any desires to revolt among the commoners and again there is a blurred line between what is considered too much cruelty. .
Dependent on Fortresses or Dependent on Loyalty from Subjects.
The attributes mentioned up to this point all have one thing in common, the prince seeks for the contentment of the people. The Machiavellian prince doesn't go out of his way to satisfy the courts subjects, but he will go out of his way from being hated by them. His power rests in winning over and then subduing the citizens because without his subjects and kingdom, he is no king and thus reaching the inference that to "not be hated by his subjects is the best fortress a prince can have.
