Against Aristogeiton II

The surest way to realize the blessing of obedience to the established laws, and the curse of despising and disobeying them, is to put before your eyes and examine separately the advantages that you derive from the laws and the results of lawlessness. For you will find that the fruits of lawlessness are madness, intemperance and greed, but from the laws come wisdom, sobriety and justice.

This is clearly so, because we can see that those cities are best ordered which have given birth to the best lawgivers. For as the distempers of the body are arrested by the discoveries of physicians, so savagery is expelled from the soul by the wise purposes of the legislator. To sum up we shall find nothing venerable or admirable which is not associated with law,

since the whole round world, the heavenly bodies and what we call the seasons are plainly, if we can trust our senses, controlled by law and order. Therefore, men of Athens, exhort one another to come to the rescue of the laws, and cast your votes against those who deliberately dishonor what is divine; and if you do this, you will be doing your duty and making the best use of your votes.