Areopagiticus (11-15)

And it is to be expected that acting as we do we should fare as we do; for nothing can turn out well for those who neglect to adopt a sound policy for the conduct of their government as a whole. On the contrary, even if they do succeed in their enterprises now and then, either through chance or through the genius of some man,[*] they soon after find themselves in the same difficulties as before, as anyone may see from what happened in our own history.

For when all Hellas fell under the power of Athens, after the naval victory of Conon and the campaign of Timotheus, we were not able to hold our good fortune any time at all, but quickly dissipated and destroyed it.[*] For we neither possess nor do we honestly seek to obtain a polity which can properly deal with our affairs.

And yet we all know that success does not visit and abide with those who have built around themselves the finest and the strongest walls,[*] nor with those who have collected the greatest population in one place, but rather with those who most nobly and wisely govern their state.

For the soul of a state is nothing else than its polity,[*] having as much power over it as does the mind over the body; for it is this which deliberates upon all questions, seeking to preserve what is good and to ward off what is disastrous; and it is this which of necessity assimilates to its own nature the laws, the public orators and the private citizens; and all the members of the state must fare well or ill according to the kind of polity under which they live.

And yet we are quite indifferent to the fact that our polity has been corrupted, nor do we even consider how we may redeem it. It is true that we sit around in our shops[*] denouncing the present order and complaining that never under a democracy have we been worse governed, but in our actions and in the sentiments which we hold regarding it we show that we are better satisfied with our present democracy than with that which was handed down to us by our forefathers. It is in favor of the democracy of our forefathers that I intend to speak, and this is the subject on which I gave notice that I would address you.