Men agree that justice in the abstract is proportion, but they differ in that some think that if they are equal in any respect they are equal absolutely, others that if they are unequal in any respect they should be unequal in all. The only stable principle of government is equality according to proportion, and for every man to enjoy his own.

Think as the wise men think, but talk like the simple people do.

Nor need it cause surprise that things disagreeable to the good man should seem pleasant to some men; for mankind is liable to many corruptions and diseases, and the things in question are not really pleasant, but only pleasant to these particular persons, who are in a condition to think them so.

Friends enhance our ability to think and act.

Think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.

As the pleasures of the body are the ones which we most often meet with, and as all men are capable of these, these have usurped the family title; and some men think these are the only pleasures that exist, because they are the only ones which they know.

All that we do is done with an eye to something else.

No one chooses what does not rest with himself, but only what he thinks can be attained by his own act.

If men think that a ruler is religious and has a reverence for the Gods, they are less afraid of suffering injustice at his hands.