Quotes About Pragmatism

We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.

Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what is for what should be pursues his downfall rather than his preservation

The gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation.

It is necessary', he writes, for a prince to learn 'how not to be good' (Ch. XV). Machiavelli's wording on this matter is extremely precise: a man who wants 'to profess goodness at all times' will inevitably fail because he is surrounded by many unscrupulous men. Hence, 'it is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain himself to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge or not to use it according to necessity' (Ch. XV).

He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must.

Politics have no relation to morals.

Since any one who would act up to a perfect standard of goodness in everything, must be ruined among so many who are not good. It is essential, therefore, for a Prince who desires to maintain his position, to have learned how to be other than good, and to use or not to use his goodness as necessity requires.

It is so far from how one lives to how one should live that he who lets go of what is done for what should be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation

En nuestros tiempos sólo hemos visto hacer grandes cosas a los hombres considerados tacaños; los demás siempre han fracasado.

L'homme qui en toutes choses veut faire profession de bonté se ruine inéluctablement parmi tant d'hommes qui n'ont aucune bonté.

un príncipe que a toda costa quiere ser bueno, cuando de hecho está rodeado de gentes que no lo son no puede menos que caminar hacia un desastre.

How we live is so difference than how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation. The Prince.

If it sells, it sells. If it doesn't sell, I'll go make a movie.

I'm at my best in a messy, middle-of-the-road muddle.

Realist ist heute, wer auf dem Boden der Tatsachen steht - ein Boden, der in den Plänen dieser gleichen Realisten bereits verseucht ist.

T]hose who willed the means and wished the ends are not absolved from guilt by the refusal of reality to match their schemes.

Tools?" scoffed Kalisti, "Tools are for people who have nothing better to do than think things through and make sensible plans.

David ran through concrete advantages. And then set aside the practical. The pragmatist was gone, replaced by the poet and mystic.

The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world — no ideals.

What's distinctively shocking about Machiavelli is that he didn't care. He believed not only that politicians must do evil in the name of the public good, but also that they shouldn't worry about it. He was unconcerned, in other words, with what modern thinkers call 'the problem of dirty hands.'

An ethical action, like an unethical action, is usually analyzed by politicians purely in pragmatic terms.

Conservative politics are about pragmatism, realism and stability.

Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.

Do you inquire why, holding these views and possessing some will of my own, i accept so imperfect a proposition? I answer, because I live among men and not among angels.