Chapter 23 — How Flatterers Should Be Avoided

The danger of flatterers is so universal and so hard to avoid, Machiavelli begins, because men are so self-complacent in their own affairs and so naturally deceived about themselves. Every prince wishes to be thought well of; those around him have strong incentives to provide that thought, true or false. The difficulty is that a prince who defends himself against flattery by welcoming every opinion runs the opposite risk: he will be held in contempt by those who speak freely, and every speaker will pull him in a different direction. There is no safety in either extreme.

The structured solution is neither openness to all counsel nor closure to any, but a selective and systematic consultation of a small number of capable and trusted advisers. These men should be given the explicit freedom to speak the truth to the prince on the matters he asks them about, but only on those matters. The prince then questions them one by one, listens to what they say, forms his own conclusions, and sticks to them. The key requirement is that the questioning be done on the prince's initiative, not on the advisers': a prince who accepts and even invites unsolicited counsel loses control of his own deliberations.

Maximilian I provides the cautionary example. He was a secretive man who consulted no one, revealed his plans to nobody, and accepted advice from no one — yet changed his decisions whenever anyone objected, which meant he was controlled by whoever spoke last. The result was a prince who never got his own way and never understood why. Machiavelli's diagnosis is precise: Maximilian combined the vices of closed counsel (no honest picture of reality) with the vices of open counsel (no stability of decision). Good counsel requires a prince who is wise enough to know what questions to ask, strong enough to hear true answers, and firm enough to act on his own conclusions once he has them.