Ethics and Morality

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

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.

You cannot teach a crab to walk straight.

Men would live exceedingly quiet if these two words, mine and thine, were taken away.

Know not to revere human things too much.

Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise. to all that lies in the middle a god has given excellence.

There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.

It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.

Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.

If we should deal out justice only, in this world, who would escape? No, it is better to be generous, and in the end more profitable, for it gains gratitude for us, and love.

Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.

There are people who think that honesty is always the best policy. This is a superstition. There are times when the appearance of it is worth six of it.