“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Change in all things is sweet. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one. ”

“ For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all. ”

“ Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. ”

“ What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do. ”