Leo Strauss argued that the most visible fact about Machiavelli's
doctrine is also the most useful one: Machiavelli seems to be a teacher
of wickedness. Strauss sought to incorporate this idea in his
interpretation without permitting it to overwhelm or exhaust his
exegesis of The Prince and the Discourses on the First Ten Books of
Livy. We are in sympathy, he writes, with the simple opinion about
Machiavelli [namely, the wickedness of his teaching], not only because
it is wholesome, but above all because a failure to take that opinion
seriously prevents one from doing justice to what is truly admirable in
Machiavelli: the intrepidity of his thought, the grandeur of his vision,
and the graceful subtlety of his speech. This critique of the founder of
modern political philosophy by this prominent twentieth-century scholar
is an essential text for students of both authors.