Key Arguments

• He asserts that without solid foundations a prince will be destroyed, identifying those foundations as laws and arms, but prioritizing arms because laws cannot exist without them.
• He explicitly brackets laws from discussion, signaling that security rests on military capability.
• He begins a general treatment of attack and defense applicable to all types of princedoms previously analyzed.

Source Quotes

Having spoken particularly of all the various kinds of Princedom whereof at the outset I proposed to treat, considered in some measure what are the causes of their strength and weakness, and pointed out the methods by which men commonly seek to acquire them, it now remains that I should discourse generally concerning the means for attack and defence of which each of these different kinds of Princedom may make use. I have already said that a Prince must lay solid foundations, since otherwise he will inevitably be destroyed. Now the main foundations of all States, whether new, old, or mixed, are good laws and good arms.

I have already said that a Prince must lay solid foundations, since otherwise he will inevitably be destroyed. Now the main foundations of all States, whether new, old, or mixed, are good laws and good arms. But since you cannot have the former without the latter, and where you have the latter, are likely to have the former, I shall here omit all discussion on the subject of laws, and speak only of arms.

Now the main foundations of all States, whether new, old, or mixed, are good laws and good arms. But since you cannot have the former without the latter, and where you have the latter, are likely to have the former, I shall here omit all discussion on the subject of laws, and speak only of arms. I say then that the arms wherewith a Prince defends his State are either his own subjects, or they are mercenaries, or they are auxiliaries, or they are partly one and partly another.

Key Concepts

• a Prince must lay solid foundations, since otherwise he will inevitably be destroyed.
• the main foundations of all States, whether new, old, or mixed, are good laws and good arms.
• you cannot have the former without the latter, and where you have the latter, are likely to have the former, I shall here omit all discussion on the subject of laws, and speak only of arms.

Context

Chapter 12 (lines 761-855) pivot from types of princedoms to general means of attack/defense, foregrounding arms over laws.