Aristotle Quotes

Education begins at the level of the learner.

... the good for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, or if there are more kinds of virtue than one, in accordance with the best and most perfect kind.

Shipping magnate of the 20th century If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.

Man's best friend is one who wishes well to the object of his wish for his sake, even if no one is to know of it.

Dissimilarity of habit tends more than anything to destroy affection.

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge.

The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

The proof that the state is a creation of nature and prior to the individual is that the individual, when isolated, is not self-sufficing.

The pleasures arising from thinking and learning will make us think and learn all the more. 1153a 23

Such an event is probable in Agathon's sense of the word: 'it is probable,' he says, 'that many things should happen contrary to probability.'

The best tragedies are conflicts between a hero and his destiny.

Excellence or virtue in a man will be the disposition which renders him a good man and also which will cause him to perform his function well.

In the Laws it is maintained that the best constitution is made up of democracy and tyranny, which are either not constitutions at all, or are the worst of all. But they are nearer the truth who combine many forms; for the constitution is better which is made up of more numerous elements. The constitution proposed in the Laws has no element of monarchy at all; it is nothing but oligarchy and democracy, leaning rather to oligarchy.

Should a man live underground, and there converse with the works of art and mechanism, and should afterwards be brought up into the open day, and see the several glories of the heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the work of such a Being as we define God to be.

In order to be effective you need not only virtue but also mental strength.

There is nothing unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.

A brave man is clear in his discourse, and keeps close to truth.

It must not be supposed that happiness will demand many or great possessions; for self-sufficiency does not depend on excessive abundance, nor does moral conduct, and it is possible to perform noble deeds even without being ruler of land and sea: one can do virtuous acts with quite moderate resources. This may be clearly observed in experience: private citizens do not seem to be less but more given to doing virtuous actions than princes and potentates. It is sufficient then if moderate resources are forthcoming; for a life of virtuous activity will be essentially a happy life.

Memory is therefore, neither Perception nor Conception, but a state or affection of one of these, conditioned by lapse of time. As already observed, there is no such thing as memory of the present while present, for the present is object only of perception, and the future, of expectation, but the object of memory is the past. All memory, therefore, implies a time elapsed; consequently only those animals which perceive time remember, and the organ whereby they perceive time is also that whereby they remember.

Evil draws men together.

One cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same respect at the same time.

The good man is he for whom, because he is virtuous, the things that are absolutely good are good; it is also plain that his use of these goods must be virtuous and in the absolute sense good.

It is through wonder that men now begin and originally began to philosophize; wondering in the first place at obvious perplexities, and then by gradual progression raising questions about the greater matters too.

Happiness comes from theperfect practice of virtue.

... the friendship of worthless people has a bad effect (because they take part, unstable as they are, in worthless pursuits, and actually become bad through each other's influence). But the friendship of the good is good, and increases in goodness because of their association. They seem even to become better men by exercising their friendship and improving each other; for the traits that they admire in each other get transferred to themselves.

Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character ofthe speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.

He who thus considers things in their first growth and origin ... will obtain the clearest view of them.

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

The soul becomes prudent by sitting and being quiet.

Yellow-colored objects appear to be gold

The guest will judge better of a feast than the cook

The ultimate end...is not knowledge, but action. To be half right on time may be more important than to obtain the whole truth too late.

Be a free thinker and don't accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.

Friends are much better tried in bad fortune than in good.

These two rational faculties may be designated the Scientific Faculty and the Calculative Faculty respectively; since calculation is the same as deliberation, and deliberation is never exercised about things that are invariable, so that the Calculative Faculty is a separate part of the rational half of the soul.

Now, the causes being four, it is the business of the student of nature to know about them all, and if he refers his problems back to all of them, he will assign the "why" in the way proper to his science-the matter, the form, the mover, that for the sake of which.

If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it... then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.

Cruel is the strife of brothers.

The true forms of government, therefore, are those in which the one, or the few, or the many, govern with a view to the common interest; but governments which rule with a view to the private interest, whether of the one or of the few, or of the many, are perversions. For the members of a state, if they are truly citizens, ought to participate in its advantages.

That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal.

The happy man . . . will be always or at least most often employed in doing and contemplating the things that are in conformity with virtue. And he will bear changes of fortunes most nobly, and with perfect propriety in every way.

I seek to bring forth what you almost already know.

To give away money is an easy matter and in any man's power. But to decide to whom to give it and how large and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in every man's power nor an easy matter.

Only an armed people can be truly free. Only an unarmed people can ever be enslaved.

The wise man knows of all things, as far as possible, although he has no knowledge of each of them in detail

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.

The seat of the soul and the control of voluntary movement - in fact, of nervous functions in general, - are to be sought in the heart. The brain is an organ of minor importance.