“So where it is a general rule that it is wrong to gratify lovers, this can be attributed to the defects of those who make that rule: the government's lust for rule and the subjects' cowardice”

“Those who tell the stories rule society.”

“He who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself.”

“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”

“those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task? For, if they are, there will be rival lovers, and they will fight.”

“In which, if any, of these constitutions do we find the art of ruling being practiced in the actual government of men? What art is more difficult to learn? But what art is more important to us?”

“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”