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Full Idea
If all men were good, promising-breaking would not be good, but because they are bad and do not keep their promises to you, you likewise do not have to keep yours to them.
Gist of Idea
If men are good you should keep promises, but they aren't, so you needn't
Source
Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince [1513], Ch.18)
Book Ref
Machiavelli,Niccolo: 'The Prince, selections from Discourses', ed/tr. Plamenatz,J [Fontana 1972], p.107
A Reaction
A rather depressing proposal to get your promise-breaking in first, based on the pessimistic view that people cannot be improved. The subsequent history of ethics in Europe showed Machiavelli to be wrong. Gentlemen began to keep their word.
| 7 | Surely you don't return a borrowed weapon to a mad friend? [Plato] |
| 7127 | If men are good you should keep promises, but they aren't, so you needn't [Machiavelli] |
| 2374 | In the violent state of nature, the merest suspicion is enough to justify breaking a contract [Hobbes] |
| 22442 | If lies were ever acceptable, with would undermine all duties based on contract [Kant] |
| 5906 | Promise-keeping is bound by the past, and is not concerned with consequences [Ross] |
| 18622 | Promises create a new duty to a particular person; they aren't just a strategy to achieve well-being [Ross] |
| 4252 | Promise keeping increases reliability, by making deliberation focus on something which would be overlooked [Williams,B] |
| 3838 | Promises hold because I give myself a reason, not because it is an institution [Searle] |