but what is very i find inspiring anyway about machiavelli is the famous letter to vittori.it's not a lament at his misfortune really. it's not a repining at fate. it's not a metaphysical inquiry into the mystery of time. he simply says, that's life. that is how we live. that is where we are. and that again sit seems to me is a profoundly modern view and i think crucially a non-tragic vision at the time and date non-tragic vision of political action. you get a much sharper vision of the tragic political action in politics as a vocation. machiavellianism is a scathing portrait of human folly but equal, it's a very very deep portrait of human stubbornness, persistence, willingness to get back up on your feet after you have been dumped in the mud by the fate, by the fates and by fortune. it's a non-tragic vision of time in which men are rarely the equal of their times. but some men can be found to be the measure of their time. most men aren't, but some men step up. that is i think his deep sense of why human life is not tragic. some fools will fail but others will be found equa