A tyrant…is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. |
Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. |
Democracy…is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. |
Do not expect justice where might is right. |
Kings … will … take possession of the children, who will be unaffected by the habits of their parents; these they will train in their own habits and laws. |
We see many instances of cities going down like sinking ships to their destruction. There have been such wrecks in the past and there surely will be others in the future, caused by the wickedness of captains and crews alike. For these are guilty men, whose sin is supreme ignorance of what matters most. |
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. |
Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. |
Your silence gives consent. |
Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments. |
The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs, is to be ruled by evil men. |
The worst of all deceptions is self-deception. |
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. |
Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught in falsehood's school. And the one man who dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool. |
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. |
Democracy leads to anarchy, which is mob rule. |
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. |
The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness… This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs, when he first appears he is a protector. |
Freedom in a democracy is the glory of the state, and, therefore, in a democracy only will the freeman of nature deign to dwell. |
Only the dead have seen the end of war. |
