Honest opinion about government from Aristotle:
It is best that laws should be so constructed as to leave as little as possible to the decision of those who judge.
Rhetoric, IGood laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.
Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state.
Politics, 4th century B.C.
Aristotle was Plato's most outstanding pupil (367-347 B.C.), a tutor of Alexander the Great (c.342-335) and a teacher in Athens (335-322). He wrote and lectured on logic, metaphysics, natural science, ethics and politics, and rhetoric and poetics. Aristotle's great philosophical work is Metaphysics (13 books), but he is also famous for many other works, including Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, and Poetics.
Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.