In the Laws it is maintained that the best constitution is made up of democracy and tyranny, which are either not constitutions at all, or are the worst of all. But they are nearer the truth who combine many forms; for the constitution is better which is made up of more numerous elements. The constitution proposed in the Laws has no element of monarchy at all; it is nothing but oligarchy and democracy, leaning rather to oligarchy.

Excellence is not an art. It is the habit of practice.

It is of itself that the divine thought thinks (since it is the most excellent of things), and its thinking is a thinking on thinking.

It is more difficult to organize a peace than to win a war; but the fruits of victory will be lost if the peace is not organized.

The misanthrope, as an essentially solitary man, is not a man at all: he must be a beast or a god.

This body is not a home, but an inn; and that only for a short time. Seneca Friendship is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

Greatness of Soul seems therefore to be as it were a crowning ornament of the virtues; it enhances their greatness, and it cannot exist without them. Hence it is hard to be truly great-souled, for greatness of soul is impossible without moral nobility.