To the size of the state there is a limit, as there is to plants, animals and implements, for none of these retain their facility when they are too large.

All art is concerned with coming into being; for it is concerned neither with things that are, or come into being by necessity, nor with things that do so in accordance with nature.

We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.

We should aim rather at leveling down our desires than leveling up our means.

Those who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people.

There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.