Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540)

One of the wisest books I've ever read. Guicciardini, a Florentine diplomat and friend of Machiavelli, collected his thoughts on self-interest in service of the powerful in this series of ricordi. They give the feeling of being developed through observation and experience rather than by any attempt at a philosophy or a system. Some of the topics covered include the role of boldness, luck, and deception in achieving success; the value of reputation and ways to maintain it; how people are driven more by hope than by fear, and why being stingy with generosity helps to build hope in others; how negatives are exaggerated and positives underrated; etc. Together they build up a picture of how to survive and succeed in a politicized context. It's a brilliant picture of an observant mind.… (more)

Sixteenth century Italy is remembered as the time of Machiavelli, but it also produced another noteworthy author of maxims and other works in Francesco Guicciardini (March 6, 1483 - May 22, 1540) . He was an Italian historian and statesman, a friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli, and is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance. Guicciardini is considered as the Father of Modern History, due to his use of government documents to verify his "History of Italy. His Maxims and Reflections were recorded over the better part of two decades and reflect his thoughts on various questions based on his personal experience. In spite of increasing skepticism, Guicciardini argues in these maxims for the superiority of reason over ignorance. The turmoil in his world is never far from the surface of this work and it is a worthy source of reading enjoyment. The maxims provide a window on an age and a record of renaissance political thought during the greatness of the Italian Renaissance.… (more)