על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר ב מ׳On the Special Laws, Book II 40
א׳
1[228] I say, then, that the maker is always senior to the thing made and the cause to its effect, and the begetters are in a sense the causes and the creators of what they beget. They are also in the position of instructors because they impart to their children from their earliest years everything that they themselves may happen to know, and give them instruction not only in the various branches of knowledge which they impress upon their young minds, but also on the most essential questions of what to choose and avoid, namely, to choose virtues and avoid vices and the activities to which they lead.
ב׳
2[229] Further, who could be more truly called benefactors than parents in relation to their children? First, they have brought them out of non-existence; then, again, they have held them entitled to nurture and later to education of body and soul, so that they may have not only life, but a good life.
ג׳
3[230] They have benefited the body by means of the gymnasium and the training there given, through which it gains muscular vigour and good condition and the power to bear itself and move with an ease marked by gracefulness and elegance. They have done the same for the soul by means of letters and arithmetic and geometry and music and philosophy as a whole which lifts on high the mind lodged within the mortal body and escorts it to the very heaven and shews it the blessed and happy beings that dwell therein, and creates in it an eager longing for the unswerving ever-harmonious order which they never forsake because they obey their captain and marshal.
ד׳
4[231] But in addition to the benefits they confer, parents have also received authority over their offspring. That authority is not obtained by lot nor voting as it is in the cities, where it may be alleged that the lot is due to a blunder of fortune in which reason has no place, and the voting to the impetuosity of the mob, always so reckless and devoid of circumspection, but is awarded by the most admirable and perfect judgement of nature above us which governs with justice things both human and divine.