Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

If the poor, for example, because they are more in number, divide among themselves the property of the rich,- is not this unjust? . . this law of confiscation clearly cannot be just.

Happiness is prosperity combined with virtue.

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.

Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character ofthe speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.