Aristotle Quotes
Read the best of Aristotle quotes. Famous Quotes by Aristotle, Greek Philosopher.
In 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.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit. Check Out Funny Friendship Quotes
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
A friend to all is a friend to none.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.
To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
Continue reading these famous Aristotle quotes on happiness
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Happiness is a state of activity.
Happiness does not lie in amusement; it would be strange if one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one’s life in order to amuse oneself… The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement.
Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.
One swallow does not make a summer,
neither does one fine day;
similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy. Aristotle Quotes on happiness from The Nicomachean Ethics
Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.
Continue reading these Aristotle quotes on education
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.
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.
It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
Philosophy can make people sick. Aristotle Quotes on education from The Nicomachean Ethics
Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
All men by nature desire knowledge.
My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
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.
The secret to humor is surprise.
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
The law is reason, free from passion.
We make war that we may live in peace.
The soul never thinks without a picture.
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Education is the best provision for old age.
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
Continue reading these famous Aristotle quotes on excellence
No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.
Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
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.
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.
These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions … The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life. Aristotle Quotes on excellence from The Nicomachean Ethics
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.
Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.
Continue reading these Aristotle quotes on love
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
Hope is a waking dream.
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 worth while to live. He is of a disposition to do men service, though he is ashamed to have a service done to him. To confer a kindness is a mark of superiority; to receive one is a mark of subordination… He does not take part in public displays… He is open in his dislikes and preferences; he talks and acts frankly, because of his contempt for men and things… He is never fired with admiration, since there is nothing great in his eyes. He cannot live in complaisance with others, except it be a friend; complaisance is the characteristic of a slave… He never feels malice, and always forgets and passes over injuries… He is not fond of talking… It is no concern of his that he should be praised, or that others should be blamed. He does not speak evil of others, even of his enemies, unless it be to themselves. His carriage is sedate, his voice deep, his speech measured; he is not given to hurry, for he is concerned about only a few things; he is not prone to vehemence, for he thinks nothing very important. A shrill voice and hasty steps come to a man through care… He bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of his circumstances, like a skillful general who marshals his limited forces with the strategy of war… He 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. Aristotle Quotes from The Nicomachean Ethics
Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.
Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.
He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.
The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
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.
The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.
For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.
He who can be, and therefore is, another’s, and he who participates in reason enough to apprehend, but not to have, is a slave by nature.
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end.
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.
Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.
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 government to the utmost.
Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.
A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.
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.
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.
Whether if soul did not exist time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked; for if there cannot be someone to count there cannot be anything that can be counted, so that evidently there cannot be number; for number is either what has been, or what can be, counted.
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