MERLTY

"I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel; nevertheless, he must take care not to misuse this mercy."-Machiavelli  This is an extremely safe statement.  Therefore, I am just going to address the first part of this statement.  If a prince is considered merciful this could be a very good thing, until his people begin to take advantage of this mercy.  Mutiny could strike up at a moment's notice with a "soft" prince.  Cruelty demands respect.  If one of the citizens of that nation respect or fear someone because of his known cruelty then they would not theoretically mutiny, or rebel.  The question then, is which is better basis of authority mercy or cruelty?  I would say MERLTY.  Which is what Machiavelli basically says.  Both are needed so the prince needs to be perfectly balanced to be a good king. Ha.