Shocking Sayings
758 sayings found from the Ancient era
Those who govern should be old, and those who are governed young.
The citizen who is not governed will not be a good governor.
In order to find the truth, you must be willing to abandon all your previous beliefs.
The best of all governments is that in which the rulers are the best and wisest, and rule according to the laws, and not according to their own arbitrary will.
From the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule.
The slave is wholly lacking the deliberative element; the female has it but it lacks authority; the child has it but it is incomplete.
For the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.
It is clear, then, that some men are by nature free, and others slaves, and that for these latter slavery is both expedient and right.
Among barbarians the female and the slave have the same status.
The slave is a living tool.
Nature would like to distinguish between the bodies of freemen and slaves, making the one strong for servile labor, the other upright, and although useless for such services, useful for political life in the arts both of war and peace.
The state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part.
A young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on moral philosophy, for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur in life, and since he tends to follow his passions, his study will be vain and unprofitable.
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that h…
Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
The art of war is natural.
The lower animals cannot even apprehend a principle; they obey their instincts. And indeed the use made of slaves and of tame animals is not very different; for both with their bodies minister to the needs of life.
Those who are in a position which places them above toil have stewards who attend to their households while they occupy themselves with philosophy or with politics.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.