Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.

Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

The law is reason, free from passion.

But if nothing but soul, or in soul mind, is qualified to count, it is impossible for there to be time unless there is soul, but only that of which time is an attribute, i.e....

It is this simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences—makes them, as the poets tell us, ‘charm the crowd’s ears more finely.’ Educated men lay down broad general...

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...

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.

Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.

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...

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.

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.

Nature does nothing in vain.

Hence intellect[ual perception] is both a beginning and an end, for the demonstrations arise from these, and concern them. As a result, one ought to pay attention to the undemonstrated assertions and opinions of experienced...

Aristotle raped reason. He implanted in the dominant schools of philosophy the attractive belief that there can be discrete separation between mind and body. This led quite naturally to corollary delusions such as the one...

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

Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

Change in all things is sweet.

He who hath many friends hath none.

It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.

Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly every action and rational choice, is thought to aim at some good; and so the good had been aptly described as that at which everything aims.

Hope is a waking dream.

Men do not become tyrants in order that they may not suffer cold.

Equity bids us be merciful to the weakness of human nature; to think less about the laws than about the man who framed them, and less about what he said than about what he meant;...

It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing...

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.

Long-lived persons have one or two lines which extend through the whole hand; short-lived persons have two lines not extending through the whole hand.

For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize.

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

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way… you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

Well begun is half done.

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.

By myth I mean the arrangement of the incidents

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled

All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.

Some animals are cunning and evil-disposed, as the fox; others, as the dog, are fierce, friendly, and fawning. Some are gentle and easily tamed, as the elephant; some are susceptible of shame, and watchful, as...

If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

We are not angry with people we fear or respect, as long as we fear or respect them; you cannot be afraid of a person and also at the same time angry with him.

No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.

Wit is educated insolence.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

knowledge” of angels, and he devoted far more of his massive Summa Theologica to them than to physics.