And a democracy, I suppose, comes into being when the poor, winning the victory, put to death some of the other party, drive out others, and grant the rest of the citizens an equal share in both citizenship and offices.
PlatoDictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.
PlatoThere should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor again excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil.
PlatoMany are the noble words in which poets speak concerning the actions of men; but like yourself when speaking about Homer, they do not speak of them by any rules of art: they are simply inspired to utter that to which the Muse impels them, and that only; and when inspired, one of them will make dithyrambs, another hymns of praise, another choral strains, another epic or iambic verses- and he who is good at one is not good any other kind of verse: for not by art does the poet sing, but by power divine.
Plato