A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious.
All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves....
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms.
If liberty and equality...are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
In cases of this sort, let us say adultery, rightness and wrongness do not depend on committing it with the right woman at the right time and in the right manner, but the mere fact of committing such action at all is to do wrong.
Law is order, and good law is good order.
Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.
Our characters are the result of our conduct.
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
The basis of a democratic state is liberty.
Virtue lies in our power, and similarly so does vice; because where it is in our power to act, it is also in our power not to act.