It is our choice of good or evil that determines our character, not our opinion about good or evil.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

Nature herself, as has been often said, requires that we should be able, not only to work well, but to use leisure well; for, as I must repeat once again, the first principle of all action is leisure. Both are required, but leisure is better than occupation and is its end.

To die in order to avoid the pains of poverty, love, or anything that is disagreeable, is not the part of a brave man, but of a coward.

All men agree that a just distribution must be according to merit in some sense; they do not all specify the same sort of merit, but democrats identify it with freemen, supporters of oligarchy with wealth (or noble birth), and supporters of aristocracy with excellence.

People of superior refinement and of active disposition identify happiness with honour; for this is roughly speaking, the end of political life.

The End is included among goods of the soul, and not among external goods.