We make war that we may live in peace.
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A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
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In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
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The argument of Alcidamas: Everyone honours the wise. Thus the Parians have honoured Archilochus, in spite of his bitter tongue; the Chians Homer, though he was not their countryman; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, though she was a woman; the Lacedaemonians actually made Chilon a member of their senate, though they are the least literary of men; the inhabitants of Lampsacus gave public burial to Anaxagoras, though he was an alien, and honour him even to this day.
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Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men although he was twice married, it never occured to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.
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Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
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A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
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Bad men are full of repentance.
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The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
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Socrates called beauty a short-lived tyranny; Plato, a privilege of nature; Theophrastus, a silent cheat; Theocritus, a delightful prejudice; Carneades, a solitary kingdom; Aristotle, that it was better than all the letters of recommendation in the world; Homer, that it was a glorious gift of nature; and Ovid, that it was favor bestowed by the gods.
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The secret to success is to know something nobody else knows.
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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
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Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
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Hope is a waking dream.
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Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
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All men by nature desire knowledge.
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Well begun is half done.
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Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
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Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
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All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
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There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
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No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
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Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, "I did not give it to the man, but to humanity."
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Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
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A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.
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Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
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In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
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Happiness depends upon ourselves.
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We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.
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Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
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