In The Prince, Machiavelli advocated a shockingly cynical approach to politics. Conventional morality took a back seat as he argued that the ends justified the means. Machiavelli had learned from his own experience as a politician in the Florentine Republic that those who did not take this win-at-all-costs approach tended to lose out to their less scrupulous counterparts. It was one of the most radical political pamphlets ever written.