Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Hippodamus, son of Euryphon, a native of Miletus, invented the art of planning and laid out the street plan of Piraeus.
This world is inescapably linked to the motions of the worlds above. All power in this world is ruled by these options.
Now it is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act best and live happily.
To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute.
The two qualities which chiefly inspire regard and affection are that a thing is your own and that it is your only one.
We have divided the Virtues of the Soul into two groups, the Virtues of the Character and the Virtues of the Intellect.
Happiness, then, is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.
Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.
The perversions are as follows: of royalty, tyranny; of aristocracy, oligarchy; of constitutional government, democracy.
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
When there is no middle class, and the poor greatly exceed in number, troubles arise, and the state soon comes to an end.
One may go wrong in many different ways, but right only in one, which is why it is easy to fail and difficult to succeed.
Legislative enactments proceed from men carrying their views a long time back; while judicial decisions are made off hand.
Here and elsewhere we shall not obtain the best insight into things until we actually see them growing from the beginning.
[Meanness] is more ingrained in man's nature than Prodigality; the mass of mankind are avaricious rather than open-handed.
Even that some people try deceived me many times ... I will not fail to believe that somewhere, someone deserves my trust.
A good style must, first of all, be clear. It must not be mean or above the dignity of the subject. It must be appropriate.
The greater the length, the more beautiful will the piece be by reason of its size, provided that the whole be perspicuous.
The high-minded man does not bear grudges, for it is not the mark of a great soul to remember injuries, but to forget them.
It will contribute towards one's object, who wishes to acquire a facility in the gaining of knowledge, to doubt judiciously.
...The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest.
Happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.
Aristocracy is that form of government in which education and discipline are qualifications for suffrage and office holding.
Of the irrational part of the soul again one division appears to be common to all living things, and of a vegetative nature.
It is not easy for a person to do any great harm when his tenure of office is short, whereas long possession begets tyranny.
Wise people have an inward sense of what is beautiful, and the highest wisdom is to trust this intuition and be guided by it.
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.
But what is happiness? If we consider what the function of man is, we find that happiness is a virtuous activity of the soul.
Happiness may be defined as good fortune joined to virtue, or a independence, or as a life that is both agreeable and secure.
He who takes his fill of every pleasure ... becomes depraved; while he who avoids all pleasures alike ... becomes insensible.
Finally, if nothing can be truly asserted, even the following claim would be false, the claim that there is no true assertion.
The senses are gateways to the intelligence. There is nothing in the intelligence which did not first pass through the senses.
The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.
The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement.
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
The true friend of the people should see that they be not too poor, for extreme poverty lowers the character of the democracy.
The principle aim of gymnastics is the education of all youth and not simply that minority of people highly favored by nature.
Purpose ... is held to be most closely connected with virtue, and to be a better token of our character than are even our acts.
It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits
Life is full of chances and changes, and the most prosperous of men may in the evening of his days meet with great misfortunes.
He who cannot see the truth for himself, nor, hearing it from others, store it away in his mind, that man is utterly worthless.
The virtue as the art consecrates itself constantly to what's difficult to do, and the harder the task, the shinier the success.
Thus every action must be due to one or other of seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reasoning, anger, or appetite.
For often, when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.
That judges of important causes should hold office for life is a questionable thing, for the mind grows old as well as the body.
Our account does not rob the mathematicians of their science... In point of fact they do not need the infinite and do not use it.
Man is the only animal capable of reasoning, though many others possess the faculty of memory and instruction in common with him.
The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order symmetry and limitations; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.
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.
It is more difficult to organize a peace than to win a war; but the fruits of victory will be lost if the peace is not organized.