No man of high and generous spirit is ever willing to indulge in flattery; the good may feel affection for others, but will not flatter them.

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.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.

Justice therefore demands that no one should do more ruling than being ruled, but that all should have their turn.

The perversions are as follows: of royalty, tyranny; of aristocracy, oligarchy; of constitutional government, democracy.

Art takes nature as its model.

For even they who compose treatises of medicine or natural philosophy in verse are denominated Poets: yet Homer and Empedocles have nothing in common except their metre; the former, therefore, justly merits the name of the Poet; while the other should rather be called a Physiologist than a Poet.