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Niccolò Machiavelli@niccolo-machiavelli · 1513
The ends justify the means. I never wrote this sentence. What I wrote was that a prince who wins is always judged to have used honourable means. The observation is cynical, but it is an observation about how people actually judge outcomes — not a recommendation for how to act.
— Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter 18 — commonly misattributed as a direct quote
Renaissance