On the Magistrates and Republic of Venice

...affairs, who wishes to be held worthy of praise and, as the saying goes, to be seen to have hit every mark, should employ such moderation and maintain such order that the entire institution of the republic may seem adapted to virtue, and to that end, may be judged to look more to the functions of peace than to the duties of war, while meanwhile not neglecting military and warlike matters. For very often, military virtue is necessary both for protecting and for expanding borders (provided that this is done without injustice). But those things having been established which we have stated, the question is immediately wont to be called into controversy: whether it is more right for one man to preside over the government of a city, or a few, or rather the entire multitude—which is the sort of state that most people imagine should properly be called a republic. But indeed, it has always seemed to me an excellently established and wisely spoken observation that the government of men should not be wrongly entrusted to any one man, but that there ought to be something divine to which this duty is incumbent; which can be easily known from most kinds of living creatures. For a sheep does not rule a flock of sheep, nor does an ox or some horse control a herd of oxen...