...one Greek city state had a fundamental law: anyone proposing revisions to the constitution did so with a noose around his neck. If his proposal lost he was instantly hanged.

Of actions some aim at what is necessary and useful, and some at what is honorable. And the preference given to one or the other class of actions must necessarily be like the preference given to one or other part of the soul and its actions over the other; there must be war for the sake of peace, business for the sake of leisure, things useful and necessary for the sake of things honorable.

Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice.

Friendship is essentially a partnership.

The activity of happiness must occupy an entire lifetime; for one swallow does not a summer make.

Ancient laws remain in force long after the people have the power to change them.

That which is impossible and probable is better than that which is possible and improbable.