Forms of government

and, furthermore, that the Hellenes who rank first in wealth and stand foremost in reputation and who desire the best of governments, even though they have not yet allied themselves with us, are with us at least to the extent of wishing us well, and that upon them we have good reason to rest great hopes for the future.

and in addition to this ally are good government and sober habits of life, and a willingness to battle to the death against the enemy, and the conviction that nothing is so much to be dreaded as the reproaches of our fellow-citizens—qualities which we possess in larger measure than any other people in existence.

nay, we must endure for the present and be of good courage with regard to the future, knowing that states repair such disasters by the aid of good government and experience in warfare;

Speaking, then, of forms of government (for this was the subject I set out to lay before you), I imagine that we all believe that it is altogether monstrous that the good and the bad should be thought worthy of the same privileges, and that it is of the very essence of justice that distinctions should be made between them, and that those who are unlike should not be treated alike but should fare a …

however, I regard those as the best and most worthy of a king, and most appropriate to me, which give directions on good morals and good government;

And I believe that I should most effectively exhort you and urge you to remember my words and heed them, not if I should confine myself to giving you advice and then, after counting out my precepts, make an end, but if, before doing this, I should prove to you, first, that you ought to be content with our present government, not only from necessity, nor because we have lived under it all our lives …

Kingship and despotism, in his judgment, were both forms of government, but he held that they differed.