Machiavelli recommends, "one must know how to color one's actions and be a great feigner and dissembler." He concludes that "… it is a general rule about men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, liars and deceivers, fearful of danger and greedy for gain." He states that a prince who acts virtuously will soon come to his end in a sea of people who are not virtuous themselves. Thus the successful prince must be dishonest and immoral when it suits him. He states that "…we see from recent experience that those princes have accomplished most who paid little heed to keeping their promises, but who knew how to manipulate the minds of men craftily. In the end, they won out over those who tried to act honestly." Machiavelli advocates cunning political maneuvers as he understands it as the best way to hold on to power.