ChapterTwoBookOne74

I said that the education of which our mind has the most need with regard to temporal felicity or our wealth (292) is contained in a very simple proposition, which is, to know our natural poverty and the remedy for getting out of it. This education contains an infinite amount of knowledge that must reach us with the help of and by communication with others; at least we would need an infinite amount of time to acquire it by ourselves. However, everyone needs it equally, and the prince must provide it to everyone if he wants everyone to be a useful contributor[^1] to the state’s wealth. All knowledge and education[^2] that does not relate to the proposition that I have put forward and is contrary to it must be exterminated and proscribed in a state, and especially must never be included in the teaching of young people. (293)

To make a sound judgment on this, we must know the real needs of all those who make up the state and the means to satisfy them. Because all men are equal with regard to their natural poverty, that is to say, no one is able to preserve himself and to get rich without the help of an infinite number of others, it is important for the good of the state that everyone without exception is fully informed of this truth and that it is well imprinted on the minds and hearts of the youth so that all those who make up the state—as generally all men are obliged to do—regard each other as brothers from the same family who are unable to live without each other and in which the destruction of one (294) necessarily leads to the destruction of a degree of the wealth of the others.