ethics Quotes

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.

We must become just be doing just acts.

One can aim at honor both as one ought, and more than one ought, and less than one ought. He whose craving for honor is excessive is said to be ambitious, and he who is deficient in this respect unambitious;... ...

Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities.

Patience is so like fortitude that she seems either her sister or her daughter.

All flatterers are mercenary, and all low-minded men are flatterers.

Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.

Madness is badness of spirit, when one seeks profit from all sources.

If the state cannot be entirely composed of good men, and yet each citizen is expected to do his own business well, and must therefore have virtue, still inasmuch as all the citizens cannot be alike, the virtue of the... ...

Anyone, without any great penetration, may distinguish the dispositions consequent on wealth; for its possessors are insolent and overbearing, from being tainted in a certain way by the getting of their wealth. For they are affected as though they possessed... ...