All food must be capable of being digested, and that what produces digestion is warmth; that is why everything that has soul in it possesses warmth.

Poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him.

Actions determine what kind of characteristics are developed.

Since music has so much to do with the molding of character, it is necessary that we teach it to our children.

Music has a power of forming the character, and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young.

Therefore the good man ought to be a lover of self, since he will then both benefit himself by acting nobly and aid his fellows; but the bad man ought not to be a lover of self, since he will follow his base passions, and so injure both himself and his neighbors. With the bad man therefore, what he does is not in accord with what he ought to do, but the good man does what he ought, since intelligence always chooses for itself that which is best, and the good man obeys his intelligence.

The state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.