Accordingly, the poet should prefer probable impossibilities to improbable possibilities. The tragic plot must not be composed of irrational parts.

For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.

Modesty is hardly to be described as a virtue. It is a feeling rather than a disposition. It is a kind of fear of falling into disrepute.

A human being is a naturally political [animal].

Friends are an aid to the young, to guard them from error; to the elderly, to attend to their wants and to supplement their failing power of action; to those in the prime of life, to assist them to noble deeds.

A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle and an end.

In justice is all virtues found in sum.