The virtues [moral excellence] therefore are engendered in us neither by nature nor yet in violation of nature; nature gives us the capacity to receive them, and this capacity is brought to maturity by habit.

The seat of the soul and the control of voluntary movement - in fact, of nervous functions in general, - are to be sought in the heart. The brain is an organ of minor importance.

Not to know of what things one should demand demonstration, and of what one should not, argues want of education.

Music directly represents the passions of the soul. If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person.

Every formed disposition of the soul realizes its full nature in relation to and dealing with that class of objects by which it is its nature to be corrupted or improved.

When quarrels and complaints arise, it is when people who are equal have not got equal shares, or vice-versa.

We are not angry with people we fear or respect, as long as we fear or respect them; you cannot be afraid of a person and also at the same time angry with him.