On the Republic / On the Laws

True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.

In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.

The good life is impossible without a good state; and there is no greater blessing than a well-ordered state.

In communities and individuals alike, excessive freedom topples over into excessive slavery. Extreme freedom produces a tyrant, along with the extremely harsh and evil slavery that goes with him.

Justice looks for no prize and no price; it is sought for itself, and is at once the cause and meaning of all the virtues. . . . The worst kind of injustice is to look for profit from injustice.

Honesty is the best policy

There is no doubt that a person who is called generous and open-handed has duty in mind, not gain. So likewise justice looks for no prize and no price; it is sought for itself, and is at once the cause and meaning of all the virtues.

What can be more certain than this, that no one should be so stupid and so arrogant as to believe that reason and intelligence are present in him but not in the heavens and in the world? Or that those things which are barely understood by the highest intellectual reasoning are kept in motion without any intelligence at all? As for the person who is not impelled to give thanks for the procession of the stars, the alternation of day and night, the regular succession of the seasons, and the fruits which are produced for our enjoyment—how can such a person be counted as human at all?

The aim of a ship's captain is a successful voyage; a doctor's, health; a general's, victory. So the aim of our ideal statesman is the citizens' happy life--that is, a life secure in wealth, rich in resources, abundant in renown, and honorable in its moral character. That is the task which I wish him to accomplish--the greatest and best that any man can have.

For riches, fame, and power, without wisdom and a just method of regulating ourselves and commanding others, a government is full of discredit and insolent arrogance, nor is there any kind of government more deformed than that in which the wealthiest are regarded as the noblest.

When conscience reigns, it allows no resting-place to lust, violence, and temerity.

We are born for justice, and . . . what is just is based, not on opinion, but on nature.

By all means press on . . . and bear in mind that you are not mortal, but only that body of yours. You are not the person presented by your physical appearance. A man's true self is his mind, not that form which can be pointed out by a finger.

But when there is mutual fear between one individual and another, and between one class and another, then, because no one can rely on his own strength, a kind of pact is made between the people and the powerful few. From that emerges the compromise recommended by Scipio, i.e. the mixed form of government. You see, the mother of justice is not nature, nor good intentions, but weakness. For when one is faced with a threefold choice: (a) to do injury

There might be believed to exist one Universal Monarch in heaven [who] be accounted both king and father of all creatures.

However one defines man, the same definition applies to us all.