Ambition is like choler; which is a humor that makes men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becomes adust, and thereby malign and venomous.
So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased, when things go backward; which is the worst property in a servant of a prince, or state. Therefore it is good for princes, if they use ambitious men, to handle it, so as they be still progressive and not retrograde; which, because it cannot be without inconvenience, it is good not to use such natures at all. For if they rise not with their service, they will take order to make their service fall with them. But since we have said, it were good not to use men of ambitious natures, except it be upon necessity, it is fit we speak, in what cases they are of necessity.
Good commanders in the wars must be taken, be they never so ambitious; for the use of their service, dispenses with the rest; and to take a soldier without ambition, is to pull off his spurs. There is also great use of ambitious men, in being screens to princes in matters of danger and envy; for no man will take that part, except he be like a seeled dove, that mounts and mounts, because he cannot see about him. There is use also of ambitious men, in pulling down the greatness of any subject that overtops; as Tiberius used Macro, in the pulling down of Sejanus.
Since, therefore, they must be used in such cases, there rests to speak, how they are to be bridled, that they may be less dangerous. There is less danger of them, if they be of mean birth, than if they be noble; and if they be rather harsh of nature, than gracious and popular; and if they be rather new raised, than grown cunning, and fortified, in their greatness.
It is counted by some, a weakness in princes, to have favorites; but it is, of all others, the best remedy against ambitious great-ones. For when the way of pleasuring, and displeasuring, lies by the favorite, it is impossible any other should be over-great. Another means to curb them, is to balance them by others, as proud as they. But then there must be some middle counselors, to keep things steady; for without that ballast, the ship will roll too much. At the least, a prince may animate and inure some meaner persons, to be as it were scourges, to ambitious men. As for the having of them obnoxious to ruin; if they be of fearful natures, it may do well; but if they be stout and daring, it may precipitate their designs, and prove dangerous. As for the pulling of them down, if the affairs require it, and that it may not be done with safety suddenly, the only way is the interchange, continually, of favors and disgraces; whereby they may not know what to expect, and be, as it were, in a wood.
Of ambitions, it is less harmful, the ambition to prevail in great things, than that other, to appear in every thing; for that breeds confusion, and mars business. But yet it is less danger, to have an ambitious man stirring in business, than great in dependences. He that seeks to be eminent amongst able men, has a great task; but that is ever good for the public. But he, that plots to be the only figure amongst ciphers, is the decay of a whole age.
Honor has three things in it: the vantage ground to do good; the approach to kings and principal persons; and the raising of a man's own fortunes. He that has the best of these intentions, when he aspires, is an honest man; and that prince, which can discern of these intentions in another that aspires, is a wise prince. Generally, let princes and states choose such ministers, as are more sensible of duty than of rising; and such as love business rather upon conscience, than upon bravery, and let them discern a busy nature, from a willing mind.
Of Fortune
It cannot be denied, but outward accidents conduce much to fortune; favor, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue. But chiefly, the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.
Every man is architect of his own fortune, said the poet. And the most frequent of external causes is, that the folly of one man, is the fortune of another. For no man prospers so suddenly, as by others' errors. A serpent, unless it has eaten a serpent, does not become a dragon.
Overt and apparent virtues, bring forth praise; but there be secret and hidden virtues, that bring forth fortune; certain deliveries of a man's self, which have no name. The Spanish name, desemboltura, partly expresses them: When there be not stops nor restiveness in a man's nature; but that the wheels of his mind, keep way with the wheels of his fortune. For so Livy (after he had described Cato Major in these words, there was in him such strength of body and mind, that in whatever rank he had been born, he would have been likely to win fortune for himself) falls upon that, that he had versatility. Therefore if a man looks sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortuna: For though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.
The way of fortune, is like the Milken Way in the sky; which is a meeting or knot of a number of small stars; not seen asunder, but giving light together. So are there a number of little, and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.
The Italians note some of them, such as a man would little think. When they speak of one that cannot do amiss, they will throw in, into his other conditions, that he has a little of the fool or madman. And certainly there be not two more fortunate properties, than to have a little of the fool, and not too much of the honest. Therefore extreme lovers of their country or masters, were never fortunate, neither can they be. For when a man places his thoughts without himself, he goes not his own way. An hasty fortune makes an enterpriser and remover; but the exercised fortune makes the able man.
Fortune is to be honored and respected, and it be but for her daughters, Confidence and Reputation. For those two, felicity breeds; the first within a man's self, the latter in others towards him. All wise men, to decline the envy of their own virtues, use to ascribe them to Providence and Fortune; for so they may the better assume them, and, besides, it is greatness in a man, to be the care of the higher powers. So Caesar said to the pilot in the tempest: You carry Caesar and his fortune. So Sylla chose the name of Felix, and not of Magnus.
And it has been noted, that those who ascribe openly too much to their own wisdom and policy, end unfortunate. It is written that Timotheus the Athenian, after he had, in the account he gave to the state of his government, often interlaced this speech, "and in this, Fortune had no part", never prospered in anything he undertook afterwards. Certainly there be, whose fortunes are like Homer's verses, that have a slide and easiness more than the verses of other poets; as Plutarch said of Timoleon's fortune, in respect of that of Agesilaus or Epaminondas. And that this should be, no doubt it is much, in a man's self.