Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

There is no more sure tie between friends than when they are united in their objects and wishes.

All men have a feeling, that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a point blank refusal.... If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too.

The leaders should all relate to this principle: the governed must be as happy as possible.

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

In this statement, my Scipio, I build on your own admirable definition, that there can be no community, properly so called, unless it be regulated by a combination of rights. And by this definition it appears that a multitude of men may be just as tyrannical as a single despot and indeed this is the most odious of all tyrannies, since no monster can be more barbarous than the mob, which assumes the name and mask of the people.

Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage.