According to Machiavelli, the main means of The Prince is violence. A prince who wants to hold power should not have any other purpose or thought than war. Machiavelli distinguishes between the violence that is applied rightly and cruelties that are applied wrongly when a prince is coming to the power. However, this definition is not based entirely on a moral basis, and for him, it is an appropriate behavior for a prince to resort to violence intensely at a time in order to secure himself against threats.