Machiavelli — "The common people are always caught by appearances and by the outcome of a thing…"
The common people are always caught by appearances and by the outcome of a thing; and in the world there are only the common people.
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More from Machiavelli
"Politics have no relation to morals."
"In the actions of men, and especially of princes, from which there is no appeal, the end justifies the means."
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."
"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command."
"Men are won over as much by the love they are given as by the fear they are inspired with."
About Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Florentine diplomat and political theorist whose The Prince (written 1513) became the founding text of political realism and gave us the adjective 'Machiavellian.' Closely associated with Francesco Guicciardini (fellow Florentine political analyst and historian). For an intellectual contrast, see Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch humanist and The Education of a Christian Prince author (1516) — Erasmus's princely-instruction manual was published three years after Machiavelli's, for the same European audience, and is the explicit Christian-virtue alternative to Machiavellian power-realism. The cleanest 'realism vs idealism' founding pairing in modern political theory.