"Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny."

"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."

"...happiness does not consist in amusement. In fact, it would be strange if our end were amusement, and if we were to labor and suffer hardships all our life long merely to amuse ourselves.... The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement...."

"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."

"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."

"To perceive is to suffer."

"Happiness is a quality of the soul...not a function of one's material circumstances."

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."

"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."