Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.
Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
Towns were the nursery of freedom.
Great men are almost always bad men.
Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.