Every man who has seen the world knows that nothing is so useless as a general maxim. If it be very moral and very true, it may serve for copy to a charity-boy. If, like those of Rochefoucauld, it be sparkling and whimsical, it may make an excellent motto for an essay. Few, indeed, of the many wise apophthegms which have been uttered from the time of the Seven Sages of Greece to that of Poor Richard, have prevented a single foolish action.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician

“Machiavelli,” Edinburgh Review (Mar 1827)
    (Source)

Review of Œvres complètes de Machiavel, J. V. Perier ed. (1825)