People generally despise where they flatter.

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

To perceive is to suffer.

Now property is part of a household, and the acquisition of property part of household-management; for neither life itself nor the good life is possible without a certain minimum supply of the necessities.

In the perfect state the good man is absolutely the same as the good citizen; whereas in other states the good citizen is only good relatively to his own form of government.

For what is the best choice for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.

In all well-attempered governments there is nothing which should be more jealously maintained than the spirit of obedience to law, more especially in small matters; for transgression creeps in unperceived and at last ruins the state, just as the constant recurrence of small expenses in time eats up a fortune.