Machiavelli wrote about the world as it truly is, without all the surrounding nonsense. The Renaissance was Machiavelli's time. It was also the era of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Dürer, Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, Rabelais, and Luther, to name just a few. It was the time of the first great banks, such as those of the Fuggers and the Medicis, and the time of the introduction of double-entry bookkeeping. Columbus and Magellan set out on their journeys. It was a time for a new beginning: a farewell to the rule of supernatural powers. The creative individual could take their fate into their own hands. Machiavelli focuses on achievable goals and the sober calculation of human nature's realities. A stable state is the best guarantee for a good and virtuous life for people. It is only later that Machiavelli is oversimplified.