The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli Relevance Today Written more than 500 years ago, the prince by is one of the most relevant books that we have today. For most of the critics, Niccol? Machiavelli was one of the persons that considered the idea of the end justifying the means, and thus they consider him unpopular. However, he is one among the few that understood power with its subtle limits and uses. While the actual intensions of the author remain unclear, the message is quite powerful.