Engaging with a Thinker for the Ages.

Five hundred years after Machiavelli’s lifetime (1469–1527), his insights remain as powerful and relevant as ever. In The Quotable Machiavelli, Maurizio Viroli has gathered various passages from across Machiavelli’s works and organized them by subject matter. This grouping of the passages, which range from a paragraph to a page in length, not only helps readers find specific information, but also allows for comparison among Machiavelli’s writings.

Seeing multiple perspectives on a given subject—from abstractions like “liberty” to specific individuals and states—helps to round out an understanding of Machiavelli’s collected insights. Though I had previously read nearly all of the sources of these passages­—many of them multiple times—it was valuable to see the juxtaposition of related material spanning several sources. These thematic groupings also help to rebut arguments regarding the supposed mutual inconsistency of Machiavelli’s major works, (notably The Prince and The Discourses on Livy). Machiavelli’s thoughts and perspectives are generally consonant with one another, so long as they are not distorted by the agendas of his readers.

The book begins with a well-written introduction that briefly discusses aspects of Machiavelli’s ideas, his life, and his impact. There follow a couple of intimate chapters: in the first, Machiavelli’s writings describing himself and his inner circle, and in the second, we see descriptions of him by his closest associates. The next few chapters cover broad themes: humans and the cosmos they inhabit, the human condition, and political life. The book closes with Machiavelli’s comments on his contemporaries, on ancient leaders, and on the character of nations. Each chapter’s contents are internally alphabetized by subject for easy access. Given that a few passages are relevant to different topics throughout the book, perhaps one or two percent of the passages appear twice, but I did not mind this repetition.

A reader can explore the entire book from cover to cover with enjoyment, as I did, but others may choose to look up particular topics using the table of contents or index. Regardless, The Quotable Machiavelli is a book to which readers can repeatedly return. Like Machiavelli himself, who wrote of how he conversed with the ancients through his readings (pp. 6-7), they can have the privilege of engaging with a thinker for the ages.

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Our Reviewer: Dr. Scott Savitz is a defense researcher in the Washington, DC area. He earned his doctorate and a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Yale University. A senior engineer at the RAND Corporation. He has led research on such diverse subjects as employment of unmanned maritime vehicles, the impact of non-lethal weapons, addressing threats from naval mines, testing of autonomous systems, gaps in Arctic military capabilities, how to make airbases less vulnerable, and many other topics. He is the author of The Fall of the Republic, a fictionalized account of the Catiline Conspiracy in ancient Rome. His previous reviews include Machiavelli's Legacy: The Prince After Five Hundred Years, The Machiavellian Enterprise: A Commentary on The Prince, Machiavelli's Three Romes, Great Power Clashes along the Maritime Silk Road, The Crisis of Catiline, War Underground: A History of Military Mining in Siege Warfare, and Strategy and Grand Strategy.

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Note: The Quotable Machiavelli is also available in e-editions.

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