No one praises happiness as one praises justice, but we call it a 'blessing,' deeming it something higher and more divine than things we praise.

The misanthrope, as an essentially solitary man, is not a man at all: he must be a beast or a god.

Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.

A democracy is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no property, and vulgar employments.

And this activity alone would seem to be loved for its own sake; for nothing arises from it apart from the contemplating, while from practical activities we gain more or less apart from the action. And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.

The ensouled is distinguished from the unsouled by its being alive. Now since being alive is spoken of in many ways, even if only one of these is present, we say that the thing is alive, if, for instance, there is intellect or perception or spatial movement and rest or indeed movement connected with nourishment and growth and decay. It is for this reason that all the plants are also held to be alive . . .

Aristocracy is that form of government in which education and discipline are qualifications for suffrage and office holding.