It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
Aristotle
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Well begun is half done.
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
A friend to all is a friend to none.
Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
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.
Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
The law is reason, free from passion.
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
We make war that we may live in peace.
To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.
Hope is a waking dream.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.
The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.
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 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.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.