The Beatitudes are verses in the bible preaching the better qualities of man and how these will lead to the ultimate paradise heaven after death. However the ideas of Machiavelli do not agree with many of the concepts we see in the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes state that,” Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (The Beatitudes).However, Machiavelli’s arguments would certainly disagree with this. For example,” Those who by valorous ways become princes, like these men, acquire a principality with difficulty, but they keep it with ease.”(Machiavelli Chapter VI) In Machiavelli’s opinion one who works hard to acquire his principality or any success in general will have an easier maintaining it under his control. A meek person on the other hand could only have come to power through fortune or deceit and therefore will have a difficult time holding onto this power. If we take Machiavelli’s ideas as fact meek people will never inherit the earth.
The Beatitudes also state that, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”(The beatitudes) This also completely disagrees with the ideas of Machiavelli. Machiavelli’s ideas say that a proper prince use unjust methods cruelty to keep his position. ”We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.”(Machiavelli XVI) According to Machiavelli if a prince is always righteous and inherently good that Prince will inevitably fail.
In your first example, I do not follow how the quote from Mac relates to the passage from the Beats.
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