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With respect to the requirement of art, the probable impossible is always preferable to the improbable possible.

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Hence a young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur in life, but its discussi...more

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For he who lives as passion directs will not hear argument that dissuades him, nor understand it if he does; and how can we persuade one in such a sta...more

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It is well said, then, that it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced, and by doing temperate acts the temperate man; without doing these...more

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Now to exert oneself and work for the sake of amusement seems silly and utterly childish. But to amuse oneself in order that one may exert oneself, as...more

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Life in accordance with intellect is best and pleasantest, since this, more than anything else, constitutes humanity.

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Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.

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Happiness seems to depend on leisure, because we work to have leisure, and wage war to live in peace.

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With the truth, all given facts harmonize; but with what is false, the truth soon hits a wrong note.

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Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by h...more

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Philosophy can make people sick.

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Art not only imitates nature but also completes its deficiencies.

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It is impossible, or not easy, to alter by argument what has long been absorbed by habit

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

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I have gained this by philosophy … I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law.