... the friendship of worthless people has a bad effect (because they take part, unstable as they are, in worthless pursuits, and actually become bad through each other's influence). But the friendship of the good is good, and increases in goodness because of their association. They seem even to become better men by exercising their friendship and improving each other; for the traits that they admire in each other get transferred to themselves.

Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.

We deliberate not about ends, but about means.

There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.

[Prudence] is the virtue of that part of the intellect [the calculative] to which it belongs; and . . . our choice of actions will not be right without Prudence any more than without Moral Virtue, since, while Moral Virtue enables us to achieve the end, Prudence makes us adopt the right means to the end.

Beauty is the gift of God

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.