Phocion (2.4-2.5)

But that wise guidance and government of men which yields to them in return for their obedience and grants them what will please them, and then demands from them in payment what will advantage the state,—and men will give docile and profitable service in many ways, provided they are not treated despotically and harshly all the time,—conduces to safety, although it is laborious and difficult and must have that mixture of austerity and reasonableness which is so hard to attain. But if the mixture be attained, that is the most concordant and musical blending of all rhythms and all harmonies; and this is the way, we are told, in which God regulates the universe, not using compulsion, but making persuasion and reason introduce that which must be.