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(no category)
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The Good of man is the active exercise of his souls faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue, or if there be several human excellences or virtues, in conformity with the best and most perfect among them.
-Aristotle
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The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
-Aristotle
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When several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing, the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life.
-Aristotle
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The argument of Alcidamas: Everyone honours the wise. Thus the Parians have honoured Archilochus, in spite of his bitter tongue; the Chians Homer, though he was not their countryman; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, though she was a woman; the Lacedaemonians actually made Chilon a member of their senate, though they are the least literary of men; the inhabitants of Lampsacus gave public burial to Anaxagoras, though he was an alien, and honour him even to this day.
-Aristotle
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One thing alone not even God can do,To make undone whatever hath been done.
-Aristotle
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Action(s)
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We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
-Aristotle
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Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
-Aristotle
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For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
-Aristotle
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All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
-Aristotle
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Well begun is half done.
-Aristotle
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Anger
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We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.
-Aristotle
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Anyone can become angry - that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way; this is not easy.
-Aristotle
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Anger is always concerned with individuals, ... whereas hatred is directed also against classes: we all hate any thief and any informer. Moreover, anger can be cured by time; but hatred cannot. The one aims at giving pain to its object, the other at doing him harm; the angry man wants his victim to feel; the hater does not mind whether they feel or not.
-Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric, sect. 6, ch. 2.4.
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Animals
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At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
-Aristotle
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Authors & Writing
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To write well, express yourself like common people, but think like a wise man. Or, think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.
-Aristotle
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Beauty
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Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
-Aristotle
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Beauty depends on size as well as symmetry. No very small animal can be beautiful, for looking at it takes so small a portion of time that the impression of it will be confused. Nor can any very large one, for a whole view of it cannot be had at once, and so there will be no unity and completeness.
-Aristotle
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Bravery
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The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
-Aristotle
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It is easy to fly into a passion... anybody can do that, but to be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right time and in the right way that is not easy.
-Aristotle
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The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.
-Aristotle
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Character
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Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.
-Aristotle
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Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
-Aristotle
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Children
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This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.
-Aristotle, (attributed)
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City Life, Cities
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A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
-Aristotle
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Class
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The most perfect political community must be amongst those who are in the middle rank, and those states are best instituted wherein these are a larger and more respectable part, if possible, than both the other; or, if that cannot be, at least than either of them separate.
-Aristotle
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Confidence
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Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
-Aristotle
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Control
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I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
-Aristotle
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Crime
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Every rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal.
-Aristotle
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Deception/Lying
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It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
-Aristotle
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Dignity
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Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
-Aristotle
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Discipline
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What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
-Aristotle
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Education
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Education is the best provision for old age.
-Aristotle
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The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
-Aristotle
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Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.
-Aristotle
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Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
-Aristotle
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The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
-Aristotle
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Empire
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All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
-Aristotle
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Envy / Jealousy
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Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.
-Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric, sect. 6, ch. 2.11.
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Equality
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The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.
-Aristotle
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Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.
-Aristotle
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The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
-Aristotle
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Evil
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No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.
-Aristotle
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Excellence
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Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
-Aristotle
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It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible.
-Aristotle
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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
-Aristotle
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Family
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Cruel is the strife of brothers.
-Aristotle
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Forgiveness
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Bad men are full of repentance.
-Aristotle
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Freedom
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Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.
-Aristotle
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Friends
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Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.
-Aristotle
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Without friends no one would choose to live.
-Aristotle
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Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.
-Aristotle
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A true friend is one soul in two bodies.
-Aristotle
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To the query, What is a friend? his reply was A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
-Aristotle
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Friendship is essentially a partnership.
-Aristotle
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Friendship is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
-Aristotle
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What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
-Aristotle
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In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
-Aristotle
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Genius
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There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
-Aristotle
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Goals
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Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
-Aristotle
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First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.
-Aristotle
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Goodness
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It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.
-Aristotle
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Habits
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It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.
-Aristotle
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Happiness
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If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.
-Aristotle
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Happiness depends upon ourselves.
-Aristotle
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...happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it...
-Aristotle
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Hope
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Hope is a waking dream.
-Aristotle
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Hope is the dream of a waking man.
-Aristotle
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Humanity
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Man is by nature a political animal.
-Aristotle
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Humor
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The secret to humor is surprise.
-Aristotle
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Melancholy men are of all others the most witty.
-Aristotle
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Insanity
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No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.
-Aristotle
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Intelligence
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Wit is educated insolence.
-Aristotle, attributed, no source found
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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
-Aristotle
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Justice
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The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
-Aristotle
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Knowledge
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It was through the feeling of wonder that men now and at first began to philosophize.
-Aristotle
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Law
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The law is reason, free from passion.
-Aristotle
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Life
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The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
-Aristotle
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Love
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Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.
-Aristotle
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Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
-Aristotle
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The two qualities which chiefly inspire regard and affection Are that a thing is your own and that it is your only one.
-Aristotle
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Most people would rather give than get affection.
-Aristotle
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Madness
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No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
-Aristotle
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Memory
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Memory is the scribe of the soul.
-Aristotle
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Men & Women
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So it is naturally with the male and the female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind.
-Aristotle
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Moderation
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It is better to rise from life as from a banquet -- neither thirsty nor drunken.
-Aristotle
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It's best to rise from life like a banquet, neither thirsty or drunken.
-Aristotle
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Morals
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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.
-Aristotle
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The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.
-Aristotle
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Nature
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All men by nature desire to know.
-Aristotle
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Nature does nothing uselessly.
-Aristotle
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Personality
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Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy.
-Aristotle
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Pleasure
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The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
-Aristotle
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Poetry
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Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
-Aristotle
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Homer has taught all other poets the are of telling lies skillfully.
-Aristotle
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Politics
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Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
-Aristotle
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What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
-Aristotle
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Potential
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Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
-Aristotle
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Poverty
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Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
-Aristotle
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Praise
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Praise invariably implies a reference to a higher standard.
-Aristotle
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Punishment
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The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.
-Aristotle
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Responsibility
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No one will dare maintain that it is better to do injustice than to bear it.
-Aristotle
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Rest, Leisure
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The end of labor is to gain leisure.
-Aristotle
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We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.
-Aristotle
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Revolution
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For as the interposition of a rivulet, however small, will occasion the line of the phalanx to fluctuate, so any trifling disagreement will be the cause of seditions; but they will not so soon flow from anything else as from the disagreement between virtue and vice, and next to that between poverty and riches.
-Aristotle
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In revolutions the occasions may be trifling but great interests are at stake.
-Aristotle
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Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.
-Aristotle
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Selfishness
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That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual. For besides other considerations, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill.
-Aristotle
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Society
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Nor was civil society founded merely to preserve the lives of its members; but that they might live well: for otherwise a state might be composed of slaves, or the animal creation... nor is it an alliance mutually to defend each other from injuries, or for a commercial intercourse. But whosoever endeavors to establish wholesome laws in a state, attends to the virtues and vices of each individual who composes it; from whence it is evident, that the first care of him who would found a city, truly deserving that name, and not nominally so, must be to have his citizens virtuous.
-Aristotle
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Solitude
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He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
-Aristotle, Politics
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Soul
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The soul never thinks without a picture.
-Aristotle
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We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.
-Aristotle
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Stubbornness
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Obstinate people can be divded into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish.
-Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Bk. VII
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Success & Failure
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For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.
-Aristotle
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Suffering
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Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
-Aristotle
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Teaching
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The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
-Aristotle
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Tragedy
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The true end of tragedy is to purify the passions.
-Aristotle
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Tragedy is a representation of action that is worthy of serious attention, complete in itself and of some magnitude - bringing about by means of pity and fear the purging of such emotions.
-Aristotle
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Trouble, Troubles
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The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life -- knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.
-Aristotle
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Truth
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The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
-Aristotle
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Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
-Aristotle
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Virtue
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All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
-Aristotle
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Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
-Aristotle
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The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
-Aristotle
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Youth
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The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.
-Aristotle
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They Young People have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things -- and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning -- all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else.
-Aristotle
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Books by and about Aristotle
