Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.

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 Anacharsis puts it, seems right; for amusement is a sort of relaxation, and we need relaxation because we cannot work continuously. Relaxation, then, is not an end; for it is taken for the sake of activity.

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

Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.

To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.

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

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 no one would have even a prospect of becoming good.

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

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