"Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness"
"Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular"
"The energy of the mind is the essence of life"
"The law is reason, free from passion"
"The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances"
"The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons"
"Quality is not an act, it is a habit"
"No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness"
"Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope"
"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor"
"The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching"
"The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes"
"The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit"
