Just as it would be madness to settle on medical treatment for the body of a person by taking an opinion poll of the neighbors, so it is irrational to prescribe for the body politic by polling the opinions of the people at large.
People too smart to get involved in politics are doomed to live in societies run by people who aren't.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
The souls of people, on their way to Earth-life, pass through a room full of lights; each takes a taper - often only a spark - to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls, by rare fortune, are detained longer - have time to grasp a handful of tapers, which they weave into a torch. These are the torch-bearers of humanity - its poets, seers and saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, toward the light. They are the law-givers and saviors, the light-bringers, way-showers and truth-tellers, and without them, humanity would lose its way in the dark.
People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.
A tyrant... is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.