A thing chosen always as an end and never as a means we call absolutely final. Now happiness above all else appears to be absolutely final in this sense, since we always choose it for its own sake and never as a means to something else.

The ultimate end...is not knowledge, but action. To be half right on time may be more important than to obtain the whole truth too late.

In the many forms of government which have sprung up there has always been an acknowledgement of justice and proportionate equality, although mankind fail in attaining them, as indeed I have already explained. Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

By 'life,' we mean a thing that can nourish itself and grow and decay.

To die in order to avoid the pains of poverty, love, or anything that is disagreeable, is not the part of a brave man, but of a coward.

In everything, it is no easy task to find the middle.

Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice.