Of the tyrant, spies and informers are the principal instruments. War is his favorite occupation, for the sake of engrossing the attention of the people, and making himself necessary to them as their leader.

Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.

Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

While the faculty of sensation is dependent upon the body, mind is separable from it

The high-minded man is fond of conferring benefits, but it shames him to receive them.

These, then, are the four kinds of royalty. First the monarchy of the heroic ages; this was exercised over voluntary subjects, but limited to certain functions; the king was a general and a judge, and had the control of religion The second is that of the barbarians, which is a hereditary despotic government in accordance with law. A third is the power of the so-called Aesynmete or Dictator; this is an elective tyranny. The fourth is the Lacedaemonian, which is in fact a generalship, hereditary and perpetual.