When the storytelling goes bad in a society, the result is decadence.

Accordingly, the poet should prefer probable impossibilities to improbable possibilities. The tragic plot must not be composed of irrational parts.

The greatest injustices proceed from those who pursue excess, not by those who are driven by necessity.

The difference between a learned man and an ignorant one is the same as that between a living man and a corpse.

He who has conferred a benefit on anyone from motives of love or honor will feel pain, if he sees that the benefit is received without gratitude.

That which is impossible and probable is better than that which is possible and improbable.

Think as the wise men think, but talk like the simple people do.