Be not willing to show your authority by harshness

Be not willing to show your authority by harshness or by undue severity in punishment, but by causing your subjects one and all to defer to your judgement and to believe that your plans for their welfare are better than their own.  Isocrates.  To Nicocles.  Book 2.  Section 24

Image: Fresco depicting the punishment of Dirce from the House of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Pompeii (VI, 4.56) (PD)