Aristotle

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.

[Democracy] arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.

How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms?

We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.

A democracy is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no property, and vulgar employments.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

While both [Plato and truth] are dear, piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

We make war that we might live in peace.

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