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Excellence or virtue is a settled disposition of the mind that determines our choice of actions and emotions and consists essentially in observing the mean relative to us ... a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect.

Aristotle

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It has been well said that 'he who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.' The two are not the same, but the good citizen ought to be capable of both he should know how to govern like a freeman, and how to obey like a freeman - these are the virtues of a citizen.
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The soul has two parts, one rational and the other irrational. Let us now similarly divide the rational part, and let it be assumed that there are two rational faculties, one whereby we contemplate those things whose first principles are invariable, and one whereby we contemplate those things which admit of variation.
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Irrational passions would seem to be as much a part of human nature as is reason.
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Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.
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Why do men seek honour? Surely in order to confirm the favorable opinion they have formed of themselves.
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Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
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In all well-attempered governments there is nothing which should be more jealously maintained than the spirit of obedience to law, more especially in small matters for transgression creeps in unperceived and at last ruins the state, just as the constant recurrence of small expenses in time eats up a fortune.
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Art is identical with a state of capacity to make, involving a true course of reasoning.
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Every wicked man is in ignorance as to what he ought to do, and from what to abstain, and it is because of error such as this that men become unjust and, in a word, wicked.
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Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
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Dissimilarity of habit tends more than anything to destroy affection.
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Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses.
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If 'bounded by a surface' is the definition of body there cannot be an infinite body either intelligible or sensible.
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Everyone honors the wise.
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Education begins at the level of the learner.
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It is clear that those constitutions which aim at the common good are right, as being in accord with absolute justice while those which aim only at the good of the rulers are wrong.
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That which is excellent endures.
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It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.
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If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.
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Worthless persons appointed to have supreme control of weighty affairs do a lot of damage.
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