For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.

Moral qualities are so constituted as to be destroyed by excess and by deficiency . . .

All three states - the Lacedaemonian, the Cretan, and the Carthaginian - nearly resemble one another, and are very different from any others. Many of the Carthaginian institutions are excellent. The superiority of their constitution is proved by the fact that the common people remains loyal to the constitution; the Carthaginians have never had any rebellion worth speaking of, and have never been under the rule of a tyrant.

Not to know of what things one should demand demonstration, and of what one should not, argues want of education.

He who sees things grow from the beginning will have the best view of them.

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

A king ruleth as he ought, a tyrant as he lists, a king to the profit of all, a tyrant only to please a few.