Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.
~ Aristotle
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
To attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world.
Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.
I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
He who hath many friends hath none.
Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in excellence; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.
Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.
Bad men are full of repentance.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.
Change in all things is sweet.
