Youth should stay away from all evil, especially things that produce wickedness and ill-will.

To leave the number of births unrestricted, as is done in most states, inevitably causes poverty among the citizens, and poverty produces crime and faction.

The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.

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.

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

Excellence or virtue is a settled disposition of the mind that determines our choice of actions and emotions and consists essentially in observing the mean relative to us ... a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect.

They should rule who are able to rule best.