But nature flies from the infinite; for the infinite is imperfect, and nature always seeks an end.

It is not sufficient to know what one ought to say, but one must also know how to say it.

What is common to many is least taken care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than what they possess in common with others.

A government which is composed of the middle class more nearly approximates to democracy than to oligarchy, and is the safest of the imperfect forms of government.

Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.

Greatness of spirit is to bear finely both good fourtune and bad, honor and disgrace, and not to think highly of luxury or attention or power or victories in contests, and to possess a certain depth and magnitude of spirit.

For suppose that every tool we had could perform its task, either at our bidding or itself perceiving the need, and if-like the statues made by Dædalus or the tripods of Hephæstus, of which the poet says that "self-moved they enter the assembly of the gods" - shuttles in a loom could fly to and fro and a plectrum play a lyre all self-moved, then master-craftsmen would have no need of servants nor masters of slaves.