Aristotle Quotes on Governance
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Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
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They should rule who are able to rule best.
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A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange.... Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship. (III.1280b30, 1281a3)
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Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
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The basis of a democratic state is liberty.
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Law is order, and good law is good order.
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Let us then enunciate the functions of a state and we shall easily elicit what we want: First there must be food; secondly, arts, for life requires many instruments; thirdly, there must be arms, for the members of a community have need of them, and in their own hands, too, in order to maintain authority both against disobedient subjects and against external assailants....
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The good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
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What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.