government Quotes

Most persons think that a state in order to be happy ought to be large; but even if they are right, they have no idea of what is a large and what a small state.... To the size of states... ...

To let them share in the highest offices is to take a risk; inevitably, their unjust standards will cause them to commit injustice, and their lack of judgement will lead them into error. On the other hand there is a... ...

In seeking for justice men seek for the mean or neutral, for the law is the mean. Again, customary laws have more weight, and relate to more important matters, than written laws, and a man may be a safer ruler... ...

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.

It is not easy for a person to do any great harm when his tenure of office is short, whereas long possession begets tyranny.

When there is no middle class, and the poor greatly exceed in number, troubles arise, and the state soon comes to an end.

A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state, especially of the highest of all. The government is everywhere sovereign in the state, and the constitution is in fact the government.

There are still two forms besides democracy and oligarchy; one of them is universally recognized and included among the four principal forms of government, which are said to be (1) monarchy, (2) oligarchy, (3) democracy, and (4) the so-called aristocracy... ...

Democracy is when the poor, not the wealthy, are the rulers.