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Discourses on Livy: Difference between revisions
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| author = Niccolò Machiavelli
| central theme = Virtue and morality
| elevator pitch = Discussions of what can be learned from the first ten books of [[Livy]]'s ''Ab
| genre =
| publication date = 1531
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''Anyone who studies present and ancient affairs will easily see how in all cities and all peoples there still exist, and have always existed, the same desires and passions. Thus, it is an easy matter for him who carefully examines past events to foresee future events in a republic and to apply the remedies employed by the ancients, or, if old remedies cannot be found, to devise new ones based upon the similarity of the events.''|'''Niccolò Machiavelli''', ''[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Discourses_on_Livy Discourses on Livy]''}}
''The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy'', often referred to as ''The Discourses'' or ''Discourses on Livy'', is the second most well known book after ''[[The Prince]]'' (which is to say not very) by Niccolò Machiavelli. It covers the first ten books of Titus Livy's
Much of it revolves on the difference between different sets of morality, namely the old pagan morality and the current Christian morality. There is a lot of focus on doing what is necessary, even if it's not good. He also writes quite a lot about ''virtu'' (meaning those actions which are becoming of a good man) and how a republic cannot last without it, and how lacking it was in the then present day (chiefly because of Christianity). If this sounds familiar, and you've read [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]], it should: Nietzsche read Machiavelli well and took this premise as an important element. His conclusions, however, are rather different.
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