人们想象中的共和国和公国根本不存在。然而，人们的生活方式与他们应该的生活方式相去甚远，以至于任何人为了“应该的”而放弃“现状”的人都会追求自己的垮台而不是自己的保存；因为一个在一切行为中力求行善的人必定会走向灭亡，因为有很多人不善。由于这种直言不讳的实用主义，波尔红衣主教谴责尼科洛·马基雅维利是魔鬼的使徒。
(Men have imagined republics and principalities that never really existed at all. 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; for a man who strives after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to ruin, since there are so many men who are not good. For this plainspoken pragmatism, Cardinal Pole denounced Niccolò Machiavelli as the devil's apostle.)