Skip to content

"Whatever a despot by enactment constrains the citizens to do without persuasion, is the negation of law?” “Everything, I think, that men constrain others to do without persuasion, whether by enactment or not, is not law, but force.”

Another quote →

Topics

Justice

More quotes by Xenophon

Yet is it more honourable, and just, and upright, and pleasing, to treasure in the memory good acts than bad.

Anabasis (-370)

Wherever magistrates were appointed from among those who complied with the injunctions of the laws, he (Socrates) considered the government to be an aristocracy.

The most pleasing of all sounds that of your own praise.

Those who take money are bound to carry out the work for which they get a fee, while I, because I refuse to take it, am not obliged to talk with anyone against my will.

They live best, I think, who strive best to become as good as possible: and the pleasantest life is theirs who are conscious that they are growing in goodness.

All Xenophon quotes →

You may also like

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

If the church ... does not make God's liberation of the oppressed central in its mission and proclamation, how can it rest easy with a condemned criminal as the dominant symbol of its message?

James H. Cone Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (1986)

It is better for a leader to make a mistake in forgiving than to make a mistake in punishing.

Muhammad

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Xenophon (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.