The Politics

It is not easy to determine the nature of music, or why any one should have a knowledge of it.

Law is order, and good law is good order.

Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities.

Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.

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.

Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.

The law is reason unaffected by desire.

Nature does nothing uselessly.

That judges of important causes should hold office for life is a disputable thing, for the mind grows old as well as the body.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

They should rule who are able to rule best.

Man is by nature a political animal.

It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.