A good character carries with it the highest power of causing a thing to be believed.

No tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other.

The fool tells me his reason; the wise man persuades me with my own.

The activity of happiness must occupy an entire lifetime; for one swallow does not a summer make.

These, then, are the four kinds of royalty. First the monarchy of the heroic ages; this was exercised over voluntary subjects, but limited to certain functions; the king was a general and a judge, and had the control of religion The second is that of the barbarians, which is a hereditary despotic government in accordance with law. A third is the power of the so-called Aesynmete or Dictator; this is an elective tyranny. The fourth is the Lacedaemonian, which is in fact a generalship, hereditary and perpetual.

Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.