A constitution is the arrangement of magistrates in a state.

All human beings, by nature, desire to know.

Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.

Each man judges well the things he knows.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

Every rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.

For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

Hope is a waking dream.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

I have gained this by philosophy that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.

It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.

It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.

Man is by nature a political animal.

Men acquire particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way

Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.

No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.

No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.

Obstinate people can be divided into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish.

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

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

Poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotism.

Something is infinite if, taking it quantity by quantity, we can always take something outside.

Teenagers these days are out of control. They eat like pigs, they are disrespectful of adults, they interrupt and contradict their parents, and they terrorize their teachers.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor; it is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity of the dissimilar.