For as the interposition of a rivulet, however small, will occasion the line of the phalanx to fluctuate, so any trifling disagreement will be the cause of seditions; but they will not so soon flow from anything else as from the disagreement between virtue and vice, and next to that between poverty and riches.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage.

Man, as an originator of action, is a union of desire and intellect.

The first essential responsibility of the state is control of the market-place: there must be some official charged with the duty of seeing that honest dealing and good order prevail. For one of the well-nigh essential activities of all states is the buying and selling of goods to meet their mutual basic needs; this is the quickest way to self-sufficiency, which seems to be what moves men to combine under a single constitution.

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.