Thus every action must be due to one or other of seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reasoning, anger, or appetite.

The angry man wishes the object of his anger to suffer in return; hatred wishes its object not to exist.

The true forms of government, therefore, are those in which the one, or the few, or the many, govern with a view to the common interest; but governments which rule with a view to the private interest, whether of the one or of the few, or of the many, are perversions. For the members of a state, if they are truly citizens, ought to participate in its advantages.

A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange. Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not mere companionship.

The virtue of the good man is necessarily the same as the virtue of the citizen of the perfect state.

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

Consider pleasures as they depart, not as they come.