When the citizens at large administer the state for the common interest, the government is called by the generic name - a constitution.

Where the laws are not supreme, there demagogues spring up.

Men cling to life even at the cost of enduring great misfortune.

Why is it that all men who are outstanding in philosophy, poetry or the arts are melancholic?

Because the rich are generally few in number, while the poor are many, they appear to be antagonistic, and as the one or the other prevails they form the government. Hence arises the common opinion that there are two kinds of government - democracy and oligarchy.

The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.

The guest will judge better of a feast than the cook