Music directly represents the passions of the soul. If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person.

To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true.

A human being is a naturally political [animal].

The mass of mankind are evidently slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts.

Peace is more difficult than war.

Men are marked from the moment of birth to rule or be ruled.

There are branches of learning and education which we must study merely with a view to leisure spent in intellectual activity, and these are to be valued for their own sake; whereas those kinds of knowledge which are useful in business are to be deemed necessary, and exist for the sake of other things.