Of all writings either in prose or verse the writings of the legislator are the most important.

For it is he who has to determine the nature of good and evil, and how they should be studied with a view to our instruction.
And is it not as disgraceful for Solon and Lycurgus to lay down false precepts about the institutions of life as for Homer and Tyrtaeus?
The laws of states ought to be the models of writing, and what is at variance with them should be deemed ridiculous.

And we may further imagine them to express the affection and good sense of a father or mother, and not to be the fiats of a tyrant.

'Very true.' Let us enquire more particularly about sacrilege, theft and other crimes, for which we have already legislated in part.

And this leads us to ask, first of all, whether we are agreed or disagreed about the nature of the honourable and just.