Pragmatism without virtue is dangerous and hollow. Virtue without pragmatism is ineffectual and impotent. Charles de Gaulle explained that it wasn’t just raw courage that was required to lead, but that a statesman “must know when to dissemble, when to be frank…. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness and cunning. But all those things will be forgiven of him—indeed they will be regarded as high qualities—if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.”
