It is one of the maladies of our age to profess a frenzied allegiance to truth in unimportant matters, to refuse consistently to face her where graver issues are at stake.
- Janos Arany
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All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
- Aristotle


Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way... you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
- Aristotle


One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.
- Aristotle


To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute.
- Aristotle


To perceive is to suffer.
- Aristotle


We are what we repeatedly do.
- Aristotle


Wretched, ephemeral race, children of chance and tribulation, why do you force me to tell you the very thing which it would be most profitable for you not to hear? The very best thing is utterly beyond your reach: not to have been born, not to be, to be nothing. However, the second best thing for you is: to die soon.
- Aristotle


I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
- Aristotle


To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.
- Aristotle


To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.
- Aristotle


We make war that we may live in peace.
- Aristotle


We must as second best...take the least of the evils.
- Aristotle


With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it.
- Aristotle


In the arena of human life the honours and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities.
- Aristotle


A whole is that which has beginning, middle and end.
- Aristotle


What we wish, we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also.
- Julius Caesar


It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
- Confucius


Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart.
- Confucius


The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.
- Confucius


If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.
- Confucius


The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.
- Confucius


The superior man cannot be known in little matters, but he may be entrusted with great concerns. The small man may not be entrusted with great concerns, but he may be known in little matters.
- Confucius


Things that are done, it is needless to speak about...things that are past, it is needless to blame.
- Confucius


And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
- Confucius


Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
- Henry Ford


Whatever you have, you must either use or lose.
- Henry Ford


If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.
- Ben Franklin