The Importance of Liberality in a Prince

Machiavelli believes that it may be true that liberality and clemency are great virtues, but we don't understand them. He says princes who give away a huge amount of money think that they are being liberal. But this is what he calls suntu or sita. This is extravagance. And that is a vice. Likewise with clemency, he thinks the prince who is clement thinks that the great virtue is always for giving your enemies. That's absolutely fatal, Machiavelli says. The right way to be clement is to make an example of your enemies, to begin with, and then you can be more clement later.