Many of us much erroneously perceives Niccolo Machiavelli as the ruthless cynic. In many languages Machiavellian means - cleverly deceitful and unscrupulous. It is said business is Machiavellian.

So why such an opinion prevails on this great and active participant of the political life, the chronicler, the diplomat and the messenger? For contemporary promoters of Christianity he was a master of corruption and an abominable atheist. For others Machiavelli revealed outlines of new world and its history, he created social philosophy and perfectly described areas of human social life.

Everyone who knows Art of War by Sun Tzuand who read Prince by Machiavelli may easily find much analogy and resemblances between them. With so small difference nobody ever said Sun Tzu was a cynic!

One day to a grand master of Zen a pupil came to ask him to in order to be taught how to achieve enlightenment. The Master looked at the pupil and answered - You are not ready for it yet!

The pupil answered: - I will be working hard!

The Master then again repeated: - You aren't ready for it yet!

Dear users and readers of this site. Since the rapid growth and changes this site will remain under construction for a while. One of the new policy items is comparison Sun Tzu's Art of War and Machiavelli's works to negotiation styles and techniques used by modern business negotiators.