The self-indulgent man craves for all pleasant things... and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else.

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.

A brave man is clear in his discourse, and keeps close to truth.

Happiness is essentially perfect; so that the happy man requires in addition the goods of the body, external goods and the gifts of fortune, in order that his activity may not be impeded through lack of them.

And what has come to prevail in democracies is the very reverse of beneficial, in those, that is, which are regarded as the most democratically run. The reason for this lies in the failure properly to define liberty. For there are two marks by which democracy is thought to be defined: "sovereignty of the majority" and "liberty." "Just" is equated with what is equal, and the decision of the majority as to what is equal is regarded as sovereign; and liberty is seen in terms of doing what one wants.

Indeed, we may go further and assert that anyone who does not delight in fine actions is not even a good man.