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Quotation from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
“how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation”
The Prince, Chapter XV, trans. W. K. Marriott (1908)
The methodological manifesto of the book, rejecting imagined republics in favour of the real truth of the matter.
Citation: "how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation" — Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter XV, trans. W. K. Marriott (1908). (id the-prince-q4)
Portrait: Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli, Santi di Tito, Public domain.
