But of all the things which I have mentioned that which most contributes to the permanence of constitutions is the adaptation of education to the form of government, and yet in our own day this principle is universally neglected. The best laws, though sanctioned by every citizen of the state, will be of no avail unless the young are trained by habit and education in the spirit of the constitution, if the laws are democratical, democratically or oligarchically, if the laws are oligarchical. For there may be a want of self-discipline in states as well as in individuals. Now, to have been educated in the spirit of the constitution is not to perform the actions in which oligarchs or democrats delight, but those by which the existence of an oligarchy or of a democracy is made possible. Whereas among ourselves the sons of the ruling class in an oligarchy live in luxury, but the sons of the poor are hardened by exercise and toil, and hence they are both more inclined and better able to make a revolution. And in democracies of the more extreme type there has arisen a false idea of freedom which is contradictory to the true interests of the state. For two principles are characteristic of democracy, the government of the majority and freedom. Men think that what is just is equal; and that equality is the supremacy of the popular will; and that freedom means the doing what a man likes. In such democracies every one lives as he pleases, or in the words of Euripides, 'according to his fancy.' But this is all wrong; men should not think it slavery to live according to the rule of the constitution; for it is their salvation. Aristotle
About This Quote

The idea of a glorious life is not a dry collection of men's achievements, but a living thing itself, capable of being improved with each birth, and through each generation. The Roman notion of glory is that the gods live in the Roman people. They do not think of Rome as some separate thing, some great achievement on earth, which they can lose or retain as they please. A man is part of Rome; he is what Rome is, and he will be what Rome is when he dies.

The very soil on which he sleeps and moves and has his being was consecrated by the first citizen who walked there, and it will be sacred to his descendants. It is something not to be changed or discounted or lost through the lapse of years; it is something to be built upon and increased -- a family tree.

Source: Politics

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  1. To perceive is to suffer.
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  3. For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
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