Did I understand these quotes correctly?

Question

It is a quote from The Prince by Machiavelli. I also need to give a historical example of a leader to match what the quote means, but as of right now I'm only really stuck on picking apart the quotes:

"Fortune is the arbiter of half the things we do, leaving the other half or so to be controlled by ourselves."

Does that mean that half of what happens to someone (i.e a prince) in his lifetime(going with a prince example) is purely from good luck, or is it fortune as in money, and the other half is decided by him?

And:

"A prudent ruler cannot... honor his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reason for which he made his promise no longer exists."

A wise prince cannot keep his word if it puts him at a disadvantage and if the reason for him making the promises in the first place are gone, is that what that one means?

I'm pretty sure I've got them down or close to it, I just want them double-checked.

Answer 1

in the first quote "fortune" means "fate" and can be good or bad - as in "has fortune dealt you a bad hand of cards?" in short, machiavelli is saying that half of what we do is controlled by fate - good or bad, leaving us control over only what's left.

as for the second quote, it means that a ruler who wishes to remain a ruler cannot keep his word if at some point in time doing so would place him at a disadvantage, or in danger of him losing his power, particularly if the reason for him making the promise in the first place is gone.

Answer 2

this is based on my understanding

On the first quote;  Fortune here means destiny or fate.  These are coincidences that just happens to us, which leads us to where we are right now.  The quote is saying that sometimes in life, we get to where we are because of these coincidences and what we do when we get there.  It's like walking down the road and finding a purse full of money.  You never planned on finding it but it's just coincidence that you found it on that road.  The next step would depend on what you decide to do with it.  You could just ignore it, or take the money for yourself or find the owner of the purse.  Each action would lead you to a different result and in this particular situation, you decide which way you want to go.

For the second quote; It is just as you understand it.  You can easily relate this to politics especially now that its election season.  Say a candidate, he is against mining and he informs everyone about it.  He promises that if he gets elected, he won't allow any mining to continue because of various reasons.   But then he receives a generous donation from a mining company.  He accepts it because he is also in need of funds to continue running his campaign.  There is a conflict of interest.  If he refuses the money, he might not be able to continue campaigning,  on the other hand, if he accepts the money, he won't be able to fulfill his promise of not allowing any mining.  So he drops the promise of not allowing mining because he is in a disadvantage.  Also, when people forget about the promise, there is no need to hold on to it.  All the more when he gets elected, there is no reason for him to keep the promise because probably he made the promise in the first place to get elected.