Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the difference between public perception and true character, suggesting that most people are aware of only appearances.
Machiavelli's quote emphasizes the contrast between how individuals are viewed by society and their true nature. It reflects on the idea that while many may judge someone based on superficial appearances, only a select few can see beyond that façade. Furthermore, those who do understand the truth often remain silent, due to the potential repercussions of contradicting the majority opinion that is supported by the power of the state.
In practice
In a discussion about social media's influence on public perception, one might quote Machiavelli on appearances.
For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.
Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his preservation.
Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
And here one must not that hatred is acquired just as much by means of good actions as by bad ones; and so, as I said above, if a prince wishes to maintain the state, he is often obliged not to be good; because whenever that group which you believe you need to support you is corrupted, whether it be the common people, the soldiers, or the nobles, it is to your advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them; and then good actions are your enemy.
The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms.
In war, discipline can do more than fury.
Too many sit at the banquet table of the gospel of Jesus Christ and merely nibble at the feast placed before them. They go through the motions - attending their meetings perhaps, glancing at scriptures, repeating familiar prayers - but their hearts are far away.
We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility.
The New Testament is of full authority and open to the understanding of simple men as to the points most needful to salvation.
Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.
The time has come to realise that an interpretation of the universe—even a positivist one—remains unsatisfying unless it covers the interior as well as the exterior of things; mind as well as matter. The true physics is that which will, one day, achieve the inclusion of man in his wholeness in a coherent picture of the world.
The universe is then one, infinite, immobile. ... It is not capable of comprehension and therefore is endless and limitless, and to that extent infinite and indeterminable, and consequently immobile.
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