He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
The secret to humor is surprise.
Wit is educated insolence.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
Nature does nothing in vain.
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals separated from law and justice he is the worst.
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.
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.
Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.
Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
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.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way.
Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.
A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
Change in all things is sweet.
Hope is the dream of a waking man.
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
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.
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
He who hath many friends hath none.
For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.
A friend to all is a friend to none.
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.
Bad men are full of repentance.
My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
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.
Hope is a waking dream.
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Man is by nature a political animal.
There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
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.
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.