When the ancients said a work well begun was half done, they meant to impress the importance of always endeavoring to make a good beginning.

Monarchy degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into savage violence and chaos.

The government will take the fairest of names, but the worst of realities--mob rule.

If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale.

When the ancients said a work well begun was half done, they meant to impress the importance of always endeavoring to make a good beginning.

For peace, with justice and honor, is the fairest and most profitable of possessions, but with disgrace and shameful cowardice, it is the most infamous and harmful of all.

Since the masses of the people are inconstant, full of unruly desires, passionate, and reckless of consequences, they must be filled with fears to keep them in order. The ancients did well, therefore, to invent gods, and the belief in punishment after death.