Among the books that will always provoke discussions and disagreements, "The Prince" by the Italian diplomat, historian, philosopher - and true child of the Renaissance - Niccolò Machiavelli is a work that has influenced and shaped Western political thought and science like few others. And although in the dictionaries of many languages the adjective "Machiavellian" unequivocally means "scheming" and "ruthless," the elements that stand out here, beyond the given and timeless "overlooking" of morality in the race for power and authority, are nothing but clear logical thinking and an undeniable progressivism both in the political and historical view of things (secularization versus the theocratic notions of the Middle Ages) and in the means required to achieve it (leadership skills and favorable circumstances - occasione - for effective human intervention in the "natural order"). Beyond the highly insightful views on the thinking and actions of those in power, Machiavelli's "The Prince" x-rays man himself as a political being, with a depth much less "Machiavellian" than we might think.