Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine ACTIONS than in the non-performance of base ones.

Governments which have a regard to the common interest are constituted in accordance with strict principles of justice, and are therefore true forms; but those which regard only the interest of the rulers are all defective and perverted forms, for they are despotic, whereas a state is a community of freemen.

Property should be in a general sense common, but as a general rule private... In well-ordered states, although every man has his own property, some things he will place at the disposal of his friends, while of others he shares the use of them.

In inventing a model we may assume what we wish, but should avoid impossibilities.

In the works of Nature, purpose, not accident, is the main thing.

It is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal.

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.