It is the mark of an educated mind to expect that amount of exactness which the nature of the particular subject admits. It is equally unreasonable to accept merely probable conclusions from a mathematician and to demand strict demonstration from an orator.

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

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine ACTIONS than in the non-performance of base ones.

All men naturally desire knowledge. An indication of this is our esteem for the senses; for apart from their use we esteem them for their own sake, and most of all the sense of sight. Not only with a view to action, but even when no action is contemplated, we prefer sight, generally speaking, to all the other senses. The reason of this is that of all the senses sight best helps us to know things, and reveals many distinctions.

A government which is composed of the middle class more nearly approximates to democracy than to oligarchy, and is the safest of the imperfect forms of government.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.