Dante and Machiavelli were both writers who believed that society and leaders were greatly misguided in their approach to managing the state. Yet they too had very conflicting beliefs about what was ideal for a society to function properly. Machiavelli judges religious or political leaders based on their ability to maintain order and unity, whether or not one needs these leaders to set aside morality and ethics for this greater benefit of one's state . This differs greatly from Dante because his evaluation of the leaders of his time is based solely on how faithful they are to moral and ethical virtues. Judge the politician. Their ideas about human excellence are revealed through these very different judgments. While Dante's idea of ​​human excellence is based simply on morality and achieving unity with God, Machiavelli places more emphasis on practicality, necessary for the greater good of the state, and how to be an effective politician. One way in which Dante and Machiavelli have opposing views, which is revealed through their evaluation of the leaders of their time, is that Dante believes it is wrong for leaders to use religion as a way to gain power, that it is hypocritical and greedy . On the other hand, Machiavelli believes that leaders must do what is necessary to be politically effective and manage the state efficiently. This once again illustrates the fundamental difference in how we view human excellence, that is, morality versus administrative success. An example that demonstrates this point is Machiavelli's commentary on the political success of Ferdinand of Aragon. Although Machiavelli admits that Ferdinand is cunning because he does many immoral actions to become an accomplished man, but he still describes… middle of the paper… it can only weaken the status of a leader since money is needed for many other tasks in a thriving state. For example, money is needed to finance an army in unexpected wars and to finance projects. Machiavelli argues that although a frugal prince may not be well liked by his subjects at first, he will be appreciated later, when he is able to carry out expensive functions of a state without imposing heavy taxes on them. He gives examples of many different leaders of his time. An example illustrated by Machiavelli is the king of France who was able to wage many wars without imposing heavy taxes on his subjects because he was a very frugal ruler for a long time. Another example he gives is the king of Spain, Machiavelli argues that if the king of Spain had been more generous to his subjects he would not have been able to win so many campaigns for his state.