Publius Papinius Statius Quotes

A political society cannot endure without a supreme will somewhere.

The people who own the country ought to govern it.

I do not blame those who wish to rule the Athenians, but those who are over-ready to serve.

What is government but an arrangement by which the many accept the authority of the few?

Resolv'd to ruin or to rule the state..

I hold to be of itself a lesson for all those who love liberty, and who would extend its blessings to their country. Men are not to be pedants in liberty, any more than in virtue. Though they are not to be oppressed by tyrants, they must at least be governed by their fellow-men. The great principles of independence in the heart of man are to be cherished and upheld; but order, prosperity, the purposes of society, must be accomplished. The many must delegate the government of themselves to the few. Control, executive power, must be lodged somewhere …

Power is the sum total of the wills of the mass, transfered by express or tactic agreement to rulers chosen by the masses.

Between a tyrant and a prince there is this single or chief difference, that the latter obeys the law and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself as but their servant.

All power corrupts but some must govern.

To govern is to choose. To appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern.

It is not good to have a rule of many.

The essence of government is control, or the attempt to control.

I'm interested in power.

You must see the persons who are in charge - persons you can punish or vote for.

When woman reigns the devil governs.

I am not invested with dictatorial powers. If I were, I should be quite ready to dictate.

We do not support rebellion against our rulers even if they are unjust. We do not make supplications against them and do not set any revolution against them.

You are afraid of the one, I, of the few.... You are apprehensive of monarchy, I, of aristocracy.

He who has once been approved and accepted by his people, though he abuse his right, yet retains the basis of his authority as against his own private subjects, since an obligation entered upon publicly and by mutual consent cannot be dissolved and broken by the will of any private citizen. For were this otherwise, endless disorders, worse even than tyranny itself, would ensue…

The people who own the country are now going to get to run it.

The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.

Are the governors such exceptionally gifted men as to enable them … to represent the masses and act in the interests of all men better than all men would be able to act for themselves?

The tyrant is always stirring up some war or another, in order that the people may require a leader.

No man ruleth safely but that he is willingly ruled.

The people always have some champion who they set over them and nurse into greatness …. This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears, he is a protector.