Worthless persons appointed to have supreme control of weighty affairs do a lot of damage.

Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil and, if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty.

For contemplation is both the highest form of activity (since the intellect is the highest thing in us, and the objects that it apprehends are the highest things that can be known), and also it is the most continuous, because we are more capable of continuous contemplation than we are of any practical activity.

He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.

The best friend is he that, when he wishes a person's good, wishes it for that person's own sake.

Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.

We ought not to listen to those who exhort us, because we are human, to think of human things....We ought rather to take on immortality as much as possible, and do all that we can to live in accordance with the highest element within us; for even if its bulk is small, in its power and value it far exceeds everything.