Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

One would have thought that it was even more necessary to limit population than property; and that the limit should be fixed by calculating the chances of mortality in the children, and of sterility in married persons. The neglect of this subject, which in existing states is so common, is a never-failing cause of poverty among the citizens; and poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

Excellence is not an art. It is the habit of practice.

Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.

Rhetoric is useful because the true and the just are naturally superior to their opposites, so that, if decisions are improperly made, they must owe their defeat to their own advocates; which is reprehensible. Further, in dealing with certain persons, even if we possessed the most accurate scientific knowledge, we should not find it easy to persuade them by the employment of such knowledge. For scientific discourse is concerned with instruction, but in the case of such persons instruction is impossible.

The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.

The virtue of the good man is necessarily the same as the virtue of the citizen of the perfect state.