I have gained this by philosophy that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.

It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.

It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.

Man is by nature a political animal.

Men acquire particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way

Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.

No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.

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

Obstinate people can be divided into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish.

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in excellence; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves

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

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotism.

Something is infinite if, taking it quantity by quantity, we can always take something outside.

Teenagers these days are out of control. They eat like pigs, they are disrespectful of adults, they interrupt and contradict their parents, and they terrorize their teachers.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor; it is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity of the dissimilar.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand fold.

The secret to humor is surprise.

The society that loses its grip on the past is in danger, for it produces men who know nothing but the present, and who are not aware that life had been, and could be, different from what it is.

The true and the approximately true are apprehended by the same faculty; it may also be noted that men have a sufficient natural instinct for what is true, and usually do arrive at the truth. Hence the man who makes a good guess at truth is likely to make a good guess at probabilities.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

We must be neither cowardly nor rash but courageous.

We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

Why is it that all those who have become eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry, or the arts are clearly of an atrabilious temperament and some of them to such an extent as to be affected by diseases caused by black bile?

You will never do anything in the world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.

The actuality of thought is life.

The difference between a learned man and an ignorant one is the same as that between a living man and a corpse.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

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.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.