Bad men are full of repentance.
— Aristotle
Hope is a waking dream.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
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 before us the powers of thought.
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.
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
The gods too are fond of a joke.
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.
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.
We make war that we may live in peace.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
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.
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.
Change in all things is sweet.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
The secret to humor is surprise.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.
Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
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.
All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
Well begun is half done.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
Wit is educated insolence.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
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.
To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.
