Music directly imitates the passions or states of the soul...when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued withthe same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to music that rouses ignoble passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form.
AristotleThere is no such thing as committing adultery with the right woman, at the right time, and in the right way, for it is simply WRONG.
AristotleHe who cannot see the truth for himself, nor, hearing it from others, store it away in his mind, that man is utterly worthless.
AristotleWe have divided the Virtues of the Soul into two groups, the Virtues of the Character and the Virtues of the Intellect.
AristotleIt is the mark of an educated mind to expect that amount of exactness which the nature of the particular subject admits. It is equally unreasonable to accept merely probable conclusions from a mathematician and to demand strict demonstration from an orator.
AristotleA friend is a second self, so that our consciousness of a friend's existence...makes us more fully conscious of our own existence.
Aristotle. .we would have to say that hereditary succession is harmful. You may say the king, having sovereign power, will not in that case hand over to his children. But it is hard to believe that: it is a difficult achievement, which expects too much virtue of human nature.
AristotleThe shape of the heaven is of necessity spherical; for that is the shape most appropriate to its substance and also by nature primary.
AristotleEven the best of men in authority are liable to be corrupted by passion. We may conclude then that the law is reason without passion, and it is therefore preferable to any individual.
AristotleEmotions of any kind can be evoked by melody and rhythm; therefore music has the power to form character.
AristotleThe knowledge of the soul admittedly contributes greatly to the advance of truth in general, and, above all, to our understanding of Nature, for the soul is in some sense the principle of animal life.
AristotleDemocracy is the form of government in which the free are rulers, and oligarchy in which the rich; it is only an accident that the free are the many and the rich are the few.
AristotleTools may be animate as well as inanimate; for instance, a ship's captain uses a lifeless rudder, but a living man for watch; for a servant is, from the point of view of his craft, categorized as one of its tools. So any piece of property can be regarded as a tool enabling a man to live, and his property is an assemblage of such tools; a slave is a sort of living piece of property; and like any other servant is a tool in charge of other tools.
AristotleWe should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful.
AristotleThat in the soul which is called mind (by mind I mean that whereby the soul thinks and judges) is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing. For this reason it cannot reasonably be regarded as blended with the body
AristotleHence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.
AristotleThe high-minded man does not bear grudges, for it is not the mark of a great soul to remember injuries, but to forget them.
AristotleNo man of high and generous spirit is ever willing to indulge in flattery; the good may feel affection for others, but will not flatter them.
AristotleWe have no evidence as yet about mind or the power to think; it seems to be a widely different kind of soul, differing as what is eternal from what is perishable; it alone is capable of existence in isolation from all other psychic powers.
AristotleHe is courageous who endures and fears the right thing, for the right motive, in the right way and at the right times.
AristotleFor imitation is natural to man from his infancy. Man differs from other animals particularly in this, that he is imitative, and acquires his rudiments of knowledge in this way; besides, the delight in it is universal.
AristotlePoetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him.
AristotleNow the goodness that we have to consider is clearly human goodness, since the good or happiness which we set out to seek was human good and human happiness. But human goodness means in our view excellence of soul, not excellence of body.
AristotleInjustice results as much from treating unequals equally as from treating equals unequally.
AristotleThe avarice of mankind is insatiable; at one time two obols was pay enough; but now, when this sum has become customary, men always want more and more without end.
AristotleA courageous person is one who faces fearful things as he ought and as reason directs for the sake of what is noble.
AristotleHow strange it is that Socrates, after having made the children common, should hinder lovers from carnal intercourse only, but should permit love and familiarities between father and son or between brother and brother, than which nothing can be more unseemly, since even without them love of this sort is improper. How strange, too, to forbid intercourse for no other reason than the violence of the pleasure, as though the relationship of father and son or of brothers with one another made no difference.
AristotleOne citizen differs from another, but the salvation of the community is the common business of them all. This community is the constitution; the virtue of the citizen must therefore be relative to the constitution of which he is a member.
AristotleAnd inasmuch as the great-souled man deserves most, he must be the best of men; for the better a man is the more he deserves, and he that is best deserves most. Therefore the truly great-souled man must be a good man. Indeed greatness in each of the virtues would seem to go with greatness of soul.
AristotleIn 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.
AristotleThat which is impossible and probable is better than that which is possible and improbable.
AristotleHe is his own best friend and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy and is afraid of solitude.
AristotleIt is this simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences-makes them, as the poets tell us, 'charm the crowd's ears more finely.' Educated men lay down broad general principles; uneducated men argue from common knowledge and draw obvious conclusions.
Aristotle