Memorable Quotes and quotations from AristotleAristotle Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)Aristotle - Rhetoric - The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons. Aristotle - - All virtue is summed up in dealing justly. Aristotle - - There was never a genius without a tincture of madness. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. Aristotle - Politics - Law is order, and good law is good order. Aristotle - - We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle - - To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute. Aristotle - from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers - Education is the best provision for old age. Aristotle - Politics - A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange...Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship. Aristotle - Rhetoric - It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences. Aristotle - - Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own. Aristotle - - To Thales the primary question was not what do we know, but how do we know it. Aristotle - - Nature does nothing uselessly. Aristotle - - Wit is educated insolence. Aristotle - - The least deviation from truth will be multiplied later. Aristotle - from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers - What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. Aristotle - - Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. Aristotle - - The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law. Aristotle - - Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle - Metaphysica - The whole is more than the sum of its parts. Aristotle - Politics (quoting a proverb) - Well begun is half done. Aristotle - - Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. Aristotle - - It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom. Aristotle - - To love someone is to identify with them. Aristotle - - It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle - - To perceive is to suffer. Aristotle - Rhetoric - Evil draws men together. Aristotle - - It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. Aristotle - - The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. Aristotle - - It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered. Aristotle - from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers - Liars when they speak the truth are not believed. Aristotle - unknown - A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends. Aristotle - from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers - I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law. Aristotle - - Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. Aristotle - - We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle - Politics - Man is by nature a political animal. Aristotle - - In the arena of human life the honours and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities. Aristotle - Politics - Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had. Aristotle - Politics - The basis of a democratic state is liberty. Aristotle - - Education is the best provision for old age. Aristotle - - Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. Aristotle - - Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way. Aristotle - - The gods too are fond of a joke. Aristotle - In Stobaeus, Florilegium - I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods. Aristotle - - 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. Aristotle - - All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle - - A flatterer is a friend who is your inferior, or pretends to be so. Aristotle - Politics - 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 - Physics - Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time. Aristotle - - Law is mind without reason. Aristotle - - Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. Aristotle - Politics - Nature does nothing uselessly. Aristotle - Eudemian Ethics - Misfortune shows those who are not really friends. Aristotle - - It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible. Aristotle - - Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. Aristotle - - The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances. Aristotle - - Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms. Aristotle - - 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. Aristotle - quoted in http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pythagoras.html - The Pythagorean ... having been brought up in the study of mathematics, thought that things are numbers ... and that the whole cosmos is a scale and a number. Aristotle - - Education is the best provision for the journey to old age. Aristotle - Politics - It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - One swallow does not make a summer. Aristotle - - No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness. Aristotle - - Happiness is a state of activity. Aristotle - Politics - Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods. Aristotle - Rhetoric - A whole is that which has beginning, middle and end. Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics, bk. 10, ch. 7, sct. 1177b - We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle - - Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach. Aristotle - - We are what we repeatedly do. Aristotle - - 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 - - Wit is educated insolence. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - We must as second best...take the least of the evils. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it. Aristotle - - Happiness depends upon ourselves. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character. Aristotle - - We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics - To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence. Aristotle - - Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. Aristotle - from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers - Hope is a waking dream. Aristotle - - He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader. Aristotle - Politics - They should rule who are able to rule best. Aristotle - - It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. Aristotle - - Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well. Aristotle - - All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. Aristotle - - It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle - Parts of Animals - In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. Aristotle - - All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. Aristotle - Rhetoric - A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility. Aristotle - - Wit is educated insolence. Aristotle - Politics - If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost. Aristotle - - It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle - - Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. Aristotle - Nicomachen Ethics (4th c. BC) - In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action. Aristotle - - Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice. Aristotle - Metaphysics - All men by nature desire knowledge. Aristotle - Politics - The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class. Aristotle - - A friend is a second self. Aristotle - - The gods too are fond of a joke Aristotle - - it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle - - 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. |
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