The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.
AristotleTo know what virtue is is not enough; we must endeavor to possess and to practice it, or in some other manner actually ourselves to become good.
AristotleThe happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement.
AristotleVirtue also depends on ourselves. And so also does vice. For where we are free to act we are also free to refrain from acting, and where we are able to say No we are also able to say Yes; if therefore we are responsible for doing a thing when to do it right, we are also responsible for not doing it when not to do it is wrong, and if we are responsible for rightly not doing a thing, we are also responsible for wrongly doing it.
AristotleWhereas happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it, the various qualities of men are clearly the reason why there are various kinds of states and many forms of government; for different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.
Aristotle