With respect to the requirement of art, the probable impossible is always preferable to the improbable possible.
If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.
It is their character indeed that makes people who they are. But it is by reason of their actions that they are happy or the reverse.
If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.
How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms.
Suppose, then, that all men were sick or deranged, save one or two of them who were healthy and of right mind. It would then be the latter two who would be thought to be sick and deranged and the former not!
The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
A common danger unites even the bitterest enemies.
The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
Art takes nature as its model.
If some animals are good at hunting and others are suitable for hunting, then the Gods must clearly smile on hunting.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
Wonder implies the desire to learn.
Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities.
It is absurd to hold that a man should be ashamed of an inability to defend himself with his limbs, but not ashamed of an inability to defend himself with speech and reason; for the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.
Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it.
It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.