Those who have been eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry, and the arts have all had tendencies toward melancholia.

All three states - the Lacedaemonian, the Cretan, and the Carthaginian - nearly resemble one another, and are very different from any others. Many of the Carthaginian institutions are excellent. The superiority of their constitution is proved by the fact that the common people remains loyal to the constitution; the Carthaginians have never had any rebellion worth speaking of, and have never been under the rule of a tyrant.

If happiness, then, is activity expressing virtue, it is reasonable for it to express the supreme virtue, which will be the virtueof the best thing.

Thus then a single harmony orders the composition of the whole...by the mingling of the most contrary principles.

Music directly represents the passions of the soul. If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person.

When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.

Those who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people.