“Those who tell the stories rule society.”

“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”

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

“In practice people who study philosophy too long become very odd birds, not to say thoroughly vicious; while even those who are the best of them are reduced by...[philosophy] to complete uselessness as members of society.”

“Those who don't know must learn from those who do.”

“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”

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