Metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge of unprovable starting-points concepts and truth and demonstrative knowledge of what follows from them.

As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready made or constructs it for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in the episodes and amplify in detail.

Men cling to life even at the cost of enduring great misfortune.

But nature flies from the infinite; for the infinite is imperfect, and nature always seeks an end.

We must as second best, as people say, take the least of the evils.

For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.

For the real difference between humans and other animals is that humans alone have perception of good and evil, just and unjust, etc. It is the sharing of a common view in these matters that makes a household and a state.