 Associated with this, as with every differentia, is a ‘maximal sentence’ (maxima propositio), in this case: ‘equal things are to be judged equally.’ The maximal sentence can be taken as an indication of how to put together the argument; it might also be added to the argument in order to make it formally valid, but Boethius did not envisage maximal sentences being used in this way. Rather, the topical arguer produces arguments of differing strength, depending on how close to being a logical truth is the maximal sentence associated with the differentia he is using. Some maximal sentences do indeed state fundamental laws of reasoning (including modus ponens and modus tollens); others state what are at best rules of thumb and, in the case of the topic ‘from authority’—the injunction to accept as true what the wise, or experts or the majority believe—not even that.