Happiness, then, is co-extensive with contemplation, and the more people contemplate, the happier they are; not incidentally, but in virtue of their contemplation, because it is in itself precious. Thus happiness is a form of contemplation.

Friendship is two souls inhabiting one body.

In the many forms of government which have sprung up there has always been an acknowledgement of justice and proportionate equality, although mankind fail in attaining them, as indeed I have already explained. Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

One cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same respect at the same time.

By myth I mean the arrangement of the incidents

A promise made must be a promise kept.

Virtue makes us aim at the right end, and practical wisdom makes us take the right means.