The business of every art is to bring something into existence, and the practice of an art involves the study of how to bring into existence something which is capable of having such an existence and has its efficient cause in the maker and not in itself.

No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.

Why do men seek honour? Surely in order to confirm the favorable opinion they have formed of themselves.

The angry man wishes the object of his anger to suffer in return; hatred wishes its object not to exist.

Happiness does not consist in amusement. In fact, it would be strange if our end were amusement, and if we were to labor and suffer hardships all our life long merely to amuse ourselves.... The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

The basis of a democratic state is liberty