We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

Summary

This quote suggests that writers, like Machiavelli, often focus on describing actions as they are rather than emphasizing how things should ideally be done. It implies that society tends to learn more from observations of reality rather than from moral prescriptions. In acknowledging the debt owed to such writers, the quote highlights the importance of understanding human behavior as it is, rather than solely adhering to idealistic notions of how people ought to act.

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