QUOTES
What
is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.
All
virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
Dignity
does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
A
friend is a second self.
Friendship
is essentially a partnership.
Wishing
to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
Without
friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
My
best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Men
acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way...
Poverty
is the parent of revolution and crime.
The
only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.
A
state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention
of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange...Political society exists for the
sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.
If
liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy,
they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the
utmost.
In
a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more
of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
A
tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are
less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing
and pious.
"Of
the tyrant, spies and informers are the principal instruments. War is his favorite
occupation, for the sake of engrossing the attention of the people, and making
himself necessary to them as their leader."
For
what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for
him to achieve.
Of
all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
Suffering
becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through
insensibility but through greatness of mind.
The
aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward
significance.
The
greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
The
ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best
of circumstances.
The
least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
The
most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control,
and outnumbers both of the other classes.
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.
Thou
wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it
were thy last. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act,
but a habit.
What
it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
What
the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow
citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
For
the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
"It
is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to ask no favor but to be ready to
do kindness to others."
"Man
is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and
striving for his goals.
Those
that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
