A good style must, first of all, be clear. It must not be mean or above the dignity of the subject. It must be appropriate.

So that the lover of myths, which are a compact of wonders, is by the same token a lover of wisdom.

Tyrants preserve themselves by sowing fear and mistrust among the citizens by means of spies, by distracting them with foreign wars, by eliminating men of spirit who might lead a revolution, by humbling the people, and making them incapable of decisive action.

Those whose days are consumed in the low pursuits of avarice, or the gaudy frivolties of fashion, unobservant of nature's lovelinessof demarcation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form should lie.

People never know each other until they have eaten a certain amount of salt together.

The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.

We must not feel a childish disgust at the investigations of the meaner animals. For there is something marvelous in all natural things.