Men agree that justice in the abstract is proportion, but they differ in that some think that if they are equal in any respect they are equal absolutely, others that if they are unequal in any respect they should be unequal in all. The only stable principle of government is equality according to proportion, and for every man to enjoy his own.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

Character is revealed through action.

Nowadays, for the sake of the advantage which is to be gained from the public revenues and from office, men want to be always in office.

Some believe it to be just friends wanting, as if to be healthy enough to wish health.

The true forms of government, therefore, are those in which the one, or the few, or the many, govern with a view to the common interest; but governments which rule with a view to the private interest, whether of the one or of the few, or of the many, are perversions. For the members of a state, if they are truly citizens, ought to participate in its advantages.

The law is reason, free from passion.