1Let us pass on to injuries done to others, in avenging which the law has pursued these three aims, which the prince also ought to pursue: either to reform the man it punishes, or to make others better by his punishment, or that others may live more securely when the wicked are removed. 1The offenders themselves you will reform more easily with a lesser punishment; 1for a man lives more carefully when something of his good name is left intact. 1No one spares a dignity already lost; 1it is a kind of impunity to have no room left for punishment. 2The morals of the state, moreover, are better corrected by sparing use of punishments; 2for the number of wrongdoers creates a habit of wrongdoing, and the mark of disgrace is less heavy when a crowd of convictions lightens it, and severity, by being constant, loses the authority which is its greatest remedy.
3A prince establishes good morals in the state and washes away vices if he is patient with them, not as though he approved, but as though he came to punish unwillingly and with great anguish. 3The very clemency of the ruler makes men ashamed to do wrong; 3a punishment seems much heavier when it is fixed by a gentle man.