Happiness does not lie in amusement; it would be strange if one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one's life in order to amuse oneself.

The virtues [moral excellence] therefore are engendered in us neither by nature nor yet in violation of nature; nature gives us the capacity to receive them, and this capacity is brought to maturity by habit.

Art completes what nature cannot bring to finish. The artist gives us knowledge of nature's unrealized ends.

That in the soul which is called the mind is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing.

Modesty is hardly to be described as a virtue. It is a feeling rather than a disposition. It is a kind of fear of falling into disrepute.

Good moral character is not something that we can achieve on our own. We need a culture that supports the conditions under which self-love and friendship flourish.

We, on the other hand, must take for granted that the things that exist by nature are, either all or some of them, in motion.