Effective Truth

Judge people by the results of their actions and maneuvers, not their words.  Machiavelli calls this the "effective truth,"  and it is his most brilliant concept, in my opinion.  It works like this:  People will say almost anything to justify their actions, to give them a moral or sanctimonious veneer.  The only thing that is clear, the only way we can judge people and cut away this crap is by looking at their actions, the results of their actions.  That is their effective truth.  - Robert Greene

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