A change in the shape of the body creates a change in the state of the soul.

For contemplation is both the highest form of activity (since the intellect is the highest thing in us, and the objects that it apprehends are the highest things that can be known), and also it is the most continuous, because we are more capable of continuous contemplation than we are of any practical activity.

To the size of the state there is a limit, as there is to plants, animals and implements, for none of these retain their facility when they are too large.

Thinking is different from perceiving and is held to be in part imagination, in part judgment

Just as a royal rule, if not a mere name, must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a well-constituted form; oligarchy is little better, for it is a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.

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

The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.