Do you not know, my son, with what little understanding the world is ruled?

The remark is a blunt, world-weary observation about governance: power and public affairs are often directed not by deep wisdom or careful knowledge, but by limited understanding, impulse, and expediency. Addressed as “my son,” it frames the insight as a lesson in political realism—an initiation into how institutions actually function versus how they claim to function. The quote’s enduring appeal lies in its demystifying tone: it punctures idealized notions of rational statecraft and suggests that outcomes may depend as much on human frailty and ignorance as on deliberate design. Read this way, it is less a counsel of cynicism than a warning to temper expectations and to navigate authority with clear-eyed skepticism.