In all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same humours, and there always have been. It should therefore be easy for anyone who examines past things diligently to foresee future things in every republic, and to take the remedies for them that were used by the ancients. But since most readers and those who govern fail to see the same patterns of behaviour in different times, always imagining that their times and problems are unique, it follows that there are always the same scandals in every time.
