# On imitating great men (Niccolò Machiavelli)



## Reformed Covenanter (Jul 18, 2022)

Since men almost always follow the paths trod by others, and proceed in their affairs by imitation, although they are not fully able to stay on the path of others, nor to equal the virtue of those they imitate, a wise man should always enter those paths trodden by great men, and imitate those who have been most excellent, so that if one’s own virtue does not match theirs, at least it will have the smell of it. He should do as those prudent archers do who, aware of the strength of their bow when the target at which they are aiming seems too distant, set their sights much higher than the designated target, not in order to reach such a height with their arrow, but instead to be able, by aiming so high, to strike their target.

Niccolò Machiavelli, _The Prince_, trans. and ed. Peter Bondanell, Oxford World’s Classics (1532; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), vi, p. 20.

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