Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.

If the poor, for example, because they are more in number, divide among themselves the property of the rich,- is not this unjust? . . this law of confiscation clearly cannot be just.

People become house builders through building houses, harp players through playing the harp. We grow to be just by doing things which are just.

We laugh at that which we cannot bear to face.

Happiness is a state of activity.

Since the things we do determine the character of life, no blessed person can become unhappy. For he will never do those things which are hateful and petty.

The same thing may have all the kinds of causes, e.g. the moving cause of a house is the art or the builder, the final cause is the function it fulfils, the matter is earth and stones, and the form is the definitory formula.