It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.

For those who possess and can wield arms are in a position to decide whether the constitution is to continue or not

There is a cropping-time in the races of men, as in the fruits of the field; and sometimes, if the stock be good, there springs up for a time a succession of splendid men; and then comes a period of barrenness.

Imagination is a sort of faint perception.

The happy man . . . will be always or at least most often employed in doing and contemplating the things that are in conformity with virtue. And he will bear changes of fortunes most nobly, and with perfect propriety in every way.

Not to get what you have set your heart on is almost as bad as getting nothing at all.

There are some jobs in which it is impossible for a man to be virtuous.