The purpose of the present study is not as it is in other inquiries, the attainment of knowledge, we are not conducting this inquiry in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, else there would be no advantage in studying it. For that reason, it becomes necessary to examine the problem of our actions and to ask how they are to be performed. For as we have said, the actions determine what kind of characteristics are developed.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.

When the looms spin by themselves, we'll have no need for slaves.

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

It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.

The life of theoretical philosophy is the best and happiest a man can lead. Few men are capable of it and then only intermittently. For the rest there is a second-best way of life, that of moral virtue and practical wisdom.

Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be.