What does this quote mean?

“Justice was doing one’s own business, and not being a busybody.”

Justice in the city is connected with people fulfilling appropriate responsibilities rather than constantly interfering in roles that are not theirs.

Source note: The Republic, Book IV; the statement summarizes a definition developed within Socrates’ argument about the ordered city.

“Law is reason without desire.”

Good law is idealized as judgment governed by reason rather than by the changing appetites or personal passions of an individual ruler.

Source note: Politics, Book III, William Ellis translation; the line appears in a discussion of law and political rule.

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

Status and authority are presented as carrying anxiety and responsibility rather than guaranteeing comfort or peace of mind.

Source note: Act 3, Scene 1; King Henry reflects on the sleepless burden of rule.

“The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.”

Institutions cannot permanently compensate for diminished citizens; public strength ultimately depends on the development and agency of individuals.

Source note: On Liberty, Chapter V; the closing argument warns against administration that improves machinery while dwarfing the people it governs.

“Virtue then is a state apt to exercise deliberate choice, being in the relative mean, determined by reason.”

Virtue is treated as a stable capacity for deliberate choice, guided by practical judgment rather than by extremes of impulse or deficiency.

Source note: Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, Chapter VI; the public-domain English translation defines virtue through deliberate choice and the relative mean.

“All warfare is based on deception.”

Strategy depends partly on managing what an opponent believes about intentions, strength, timing, and position rather than revealing every fact directly.

Source note: The Art of War, Chapter I “Laying Plans,” Lionel Giles translation (1910).