"Nature does nothing in vain."

"The ideal man, takes joy in doing favours for others; but he feels ashamed to have others do favours for him. For it is a mark of superiority to confer a kindness; but it is a mark of inferiority to receive it."

"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."

"The physician heals Nature makes well."

"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor."

"The truth is that, just as in the other imitative arts one imitation is always of one thing, so in poetry the story, as an imitation of action, must represent one action, a complete whole, with its several incidents so closely connected that the transposal or withdrawal of any one of them will disjoin and dislocate the whole. For that which makes no perceptible difference by its presence or absence is no real part of the whole."

"Now since shame is a mental picture of disgrace, in which we shrink from the disgrace itself and not from its consequences, and we only care what opinion is held of us because of the people who form that opinion, it follows that the people before whom we feel shame are those whose opinion of us matters to us."

"What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do."

"A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state."

"All Earthquakes and Disasters are warnings there's too much corruption in the world."

"Melancholy men are of all others the most witty."

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

"To perceive is to suffer."

"Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age."

"The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live."

"That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal."

"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."

"Happiness seems to depend on leisure, because we work to have leisure, and wage war to live in peace."

"Quality is not an act, it is a habit."

"Happiness is a state of activity."

"Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers."

"Neither should we forget the mean, which at the present day is lost sight of in perverted forms of government; for many practices which appear to be democratical are the ruin of democracies, and many which appear to be oligarchical are the ruin of oligarchies. Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state."

"Good habits formed at youth make all the difference."

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."

"Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions."

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

"Education is the best provision for old age."

"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."

"They are fond of fun and therefore witty, wit being well-bred insolence."

"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."

"Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime."

"The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching."

"Different men seek ... happiness in different ways and by different means."

"It is also in the interests of the tyrant to make his subjects poor... the people are so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for plotting."

"We must not listen to those who advise us 'being men to think human thoughts, and being mortal to think mortal thoughts' but must put on immortality as much as possible and strain every nerve to live according to that best part of us, which, being small in bulk, yet much more in its power and honour surpasses all else."

"Philosophy can make people sick."

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

"He who can be, and therefore is, another's, and he who participates in reason enough to apprehend, but not to have, is a slave by nature."

"Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own."

"These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions ... The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life."

"The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes."

"Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures."

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."

"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think."

"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."

"The many are more incorruptible than the few, they are like the greater quantity of water which is less easily corrupted than a little."

"The end toward which all human acts are directed is happiness."

"Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal."

"Hope is a waking dream."

"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."