A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.

This line is associated with Machiavelli’s discussion of political necessity in The Prince (Il Principe), written in 1513 after the Medici returned to power in Florence and Machiavelli was dismissed, briefly imprisoned, and excluded from public office. In the treatise he offers pragmatic advice to rulers on maintaining power amid unstable alliances, shifting fortunes, and the unreliability of other actors. The remark belongs to his argument that a ruler should not feel bound to keep faith when doing so endangers the state or when the reasons for the promise no longer hold—especially since, he claims, other men do not keep faith with the prince.

Machiavelli is not praising dishonesty for its own sake; he is describing how rulers rationalize—and often must rationalize—breach of promise under political pressure. The key word is “legitimate”: in practice, a prince can nearly always frame expediency as necessity, public safety, or changed circumstances. The quote crystallizes Machiavelli’s separation of private morality from statecraft: political survival and the security of the state can override ordinary ethical obligations. It also exposes the rhetorical dimension of power—successful rulers manage not only actions but justifications, maintaining an appearance of reason and justice even when acting opportunistically.

1) “A prince never lacks reasons to break his promise.”
2) “A prince never lacks legitimate pretexts to break his word.”
3) “A prince never lacks lawful/justifiable causes for not keeping faith.”