Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. Education is the best provision for old age. Man is by nature a political animal. There was never a genius without a tincture of madness. Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit.
We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness. There was never a genius without a tincture of madness. All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.