power Quotes

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

Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.

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.

Anyone, without any great penetration, may distinguish the dispositions consequent on wealth; for its possessors are insolent and overbearing, from being tainted in a certain way by the getting of their wealth. For they are affected as though they possessed... ...

To give away money is an easy matter and in any man's power. But to decide to whom to give it and how large and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in every man's power nor an... ...

Where the laws are not supreme, there demagogues spring up.

Of old, the demagogue was also a general, and then democracies changed into tyrannies. Most of the ancient tyrants were originally demagogues. They are not so now, but they were then; and the reason is that they were generals and... ...

Men are marked from the moment of birth to rule or be ruled.

We can do noble acts without ruling the earth and sea.

But is it just then that the few and the wealthy should be the rulers? And what if they, in like manner, rob and plunder the people, - is this just?