Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
State (Maxims Political)
Every state will be delivered from its calamities when by the favor of fortune, great power unites with wisdom and justice in one person.Plato.
Fleets and armies are not always the strongest bulwarks, the best resources of the sovereign are in his family.Titus.
Flight toward preferment will be but slow without some golden feathers.
Free man, free goods. (So free ships, free goods. American.)German.
He that depends on popular will, swims with fins of lead and hews down oaks with rushes.Shakespeare.
He that does anything for the public is accounted to do it for nobody.
In the affairs of state the prince alone ought to decide, the empress alone should concern herself with domestic affairs.Chinese.
In the East a conqueror is always succeeded by a coward, and the founder of an empire by a fool.
In the old republic, money was despised and virtue was the energy of the state.Tacitus.
Liberty with laws and government without oppression.
Party is organized opinion.Benjamin Disraeli.
Places are gods, placemen are the devil.German.
Power and fortune must concur with prudence and virtue to effect anything great in a political capacity.Plato.
Private persons are to be advised to take care of themselves, but persons in a public character to take care of others.Pelopidas.
States of native liberty possess’t,
The very poor may be very blest.Goldsmith.
The best and securest of all keys is the friendship of the people. (Remark of Antigonus when advised to sieze upon Athens as the key of all Greece.)
The common people believe without proof and they soon find the author of that that never happened.Tacitus.
The common people pardon no faults in any man.
The complaisance which produces popularity is the source of the greatest operations of government.Plato.
The extinction of party is the origin of faction.Walpole.
The fate of a nation will ultimately depend upon the strength and health of the population.Benjamin Disraeli.
The fickle populace always change with the prince.Claudianus.
The first man who ruined the Roman people was he who first gave them treats and gratuities.Plutarch.
The foundation of every state is its education of its youth.Diogenes.
The higher our position the more modestly should we behave.Cicero.
The most successful legislators are those who have consulted the genius of the people.Benjamin Disraeli.
The noblest motive is the public good.Virgil.
The only security for civil rights is political power.Pitt.
The people follow the example of those above them.Chinese.
The people’s voice, God’s voice.French, Italian, German, Spanish.
The people will worship a calf if it be a golden one.
The principle of Dutch finance is to mortgage industry to protect property.Benjamin Disraeli.
The public has more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.Cato the Elder.
The public man needs but one patron, viz., the lucky moment.Bulwer.
The stale that strives for liberty though foiled,
Deserves at least applause for her attempt.Cowper.
The unbought loyalty of men is the cheap defence of nations.Burke.
The utility of my country is the spring that guides all my actions.Cato the Younger.
There can be no affinity nearer than our country.Plato.
’Tis easier to drag a rock from the bottom of the sea than the sentiments of right from the hearts of the people.Daniel Webster.
We may endeavor to persuade our fellow citizens but it is not lawful to force them even to that that is best for them.Plato.
What constitutes a state?
++++Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain.Sir William Jones.
When crows are the guides of a people they lead the carcasses to the dogs.Egyptian.
When vice prevails and impious men bear sway,
The post of honor is a private station.Addison.
Where the love of the people is assured the seditious are thwarted.Bias.
What belongs to the public belongs to nobody.
Who knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign.Italian.
Who serves the public serves no one.Italian, Dutch.
Will he who cannot manage his own household affairs attend to the management of a country?Tamil.