Aristotle

Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.

Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.

...the life which is best for men, both separately, as individuals, and in the mass, as states, is the life which has virtue sufficiently supported by material resources to facilitate participation in the actions that virtue calls for.

Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be.

Tragedy is an imitation not only of a complete action, but of events inspiring fear and pity. Such an effect is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follow as cause and effect. The tragic wonder will then be great than if they happened of themselves or by accident; for even coincidences are most striking when they have an air of design.

A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange. Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not mere companionship.

Happiness is a sort of action.

Thus every action must be due to one or other of seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reasoning, anger, or appetite.

So we must lay it down that the association which is a state exists not for the purpose of living together but for the sake of noble actions.

Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine ACTIONS than in the non-performance of base ones.

Character is revealed through action.

It is their character indeed that makes people who they are. But it is by reason of their actions that they are happy or the reverse.

These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions ... The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life.

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

Those that deem politics beneath their dignity are doomed to be governed by those of lesser talents.

A good style must, first of all, be clear. It must not be mean or above the dignity of the subject. It must be appropriate.

Have a definite, clear, practical ideal - a goal, an objective.

The unfortunate need people who will be kind to them; the prosperous need people to be kind to.

...virtue is not merely a state in conformity with the right principle, but one that implies the right principle; and the right principle in moral conduct is prudence.

Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.

Where perception is, there also are pain and pleasure, and where these are, there, of necessity, is desire.