All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals separated from law and justice he is the worst.
He who hath many friends hath none.
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.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.
Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
Change in all things is sweet.
Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
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.
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
Wit is educated 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.
Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.
I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
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.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
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.
A friend to all is a friend to none.
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.
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
Hope is the dream of a waking man.
Hope is a waking dream.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Bad men are full of repentance.
There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.
Nature does nothing in vain.
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
The secret to humor is surprise.
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way.
Man is by nature a political animal.