“A man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions of virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that is evil.”

—  Niccolo Machiavelli, book The Prince

Variant: A man who strives after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to ruin, since there are so many men who are not good.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 15; translated by W. K. Marriot

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Niccolo Machiavelli130
Italian politician, Writer and Author 1469–1527

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