Aristotle Quotes

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.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace making the best of circumstances.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

Adventure is worthwhile.

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

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.

Neither should we forget the mean, which at the present day is lost sight of in perverted forms of government; for many practices which appear to be democratical are the ruin of democracies, and many which appear to be oligarchical are the ruin of oligarchies. Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state. A nose which varies from the ideal of straightness to a hook or snub may still be of good shape and agreeable to the eye; but if the excess be very great, all symmetry is lost, and the nose at last ceases to be a nose at all on account of some excess in one direction or defect in the other; and this is true of every other part of the human body. The same law of proportion equally holds in states. Oligarchy or democracy, although a departure from the most perfect form, may yet be a good enough government, but if any one attempts to push the principles of either to an extreme, he will begin by spoiling the government and end by having none at all. Wherefore the legislator and the statesman ought to know what democratical measures save and what destroy a democracy, and what oligarchical measures save or destroy an oligarchy. For neither the one nor the other can exist or continue to exist unless both rich and poor are included in it. If equality of property is introduced, the state must of necessity take another form; for when by laws carried to excess one or other element in the state is ruined, the constitution is ruined.

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

We must consider also whether soul is divisible or is without parts, and whether it is everywhere homogeneous or not; and if not homogeneous, whether its various forms are different specifically or generically; up to the present time those who have discussed and investigated soul seem to have confined themselves to the human soul. We must be careful not to ignore the question whether soul can be defined in a single account, as is the case with animal, or whether we must not give a separate account of each sort of it, as we do for horse, dog, man, god (in the latter case the universal, animal—and so too every other common predicate—is either nothing or posterior). Further, if what exists is not a plurality of souls, but a plurality of parts of one soul, which ought we to investigate first, the whole soul or its parts? It is also a difficult problem to decide which of these parts are in nature distinct from one another. Again, which ought we to investigate first, these parts or their functions, mind or thinking, the faculty or the act of sensation, and so on? If the investigation of the functions precedes that of the parts, the further question suggests itself: ought we not before either to consider the correlative objects, e.g. of sense or thought? It seems not only useful for the discovery of the causes of the incidental proprieties of substances to be acquainted with the essential nature of those substances (as in mathematics it is useful for the understanding of the property of the equality of the interior angles of a triangle to two right angles to know the essential nature of the straight and the curved or of the line and (the plane) but also conversely, for the knowledge of the essential nature of a substance is largely promoted by an acquaintance with its properties: for, when we are able to give an account conformable to experience of all or most of the properties of a substance, we shall be in the most favourable position to say something worth saying about the essential nature of that subject: in all demonstration a definition of the essence is required as a starting point, so that definitions which do not enable us to discover the incidental properties, or which fail to facilitate even a conjecture about them, must obviously, one and all, be dialectical and futile." —from_On the Soul: Book I_

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.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means and so make for themselves different modes of life.

Even subjects that are known are known only to a few

For there are two reasons why human beings face danger calmly: they may have no experience of it, or they may have means to deal with it: thus when in danger at sea people may feel confident about what will happen either because they have no experience of bad weather, or because their experience gives them the means of dealing with it.

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.

Philosophy can make people sick.

The end toward which all human acts are directed is happiness.

The beginning seems to be more than half of the whole.

Wit is educated insolence.

Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.

Anyone can get angry, but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for everyone, nor is it easy.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

Melancholy men are of all others the most witty.

Now since shame is a mental picture of disgrace, in which we shrink from the disgrace itself and not from its consequences, and we only care what opinion is held of us because of the people who form that opinion, it follows that the people before whom we feel shame are those whose opinion of us matters to us.

It is a part of probability that many improbabilities will happen.

Yes the truth is that men's ambition and their desire to make money are among the most frequent causes of deliberate acts of injustice.

All men by nature desire to know.

Men do not become tyrants in order that they may not suffer cold.

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 neighbor to have them through envy.

Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

The physician heals Nature makes well.

Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.

All men seek one goal: success or happiness.

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

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.

Happiness seems to depend on leisure, because we work to have leisure, and wage war to live in peace.

A man without regrets cannot be cured.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

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.

There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.

They are fond of fun and therefore witty, wit being well-bred insolence.

Equity bids us be merciful to the weakness of human nature; to think less about the laws than about the man who framed them, and less about what he said than about what he meant; not to consider the actions of the accused so much as his intentions; nor this or that detail so much as the whole story; to ask not what a man is now but what he has always or usually been.

He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.

For he who lives as passion directs will not hear argument that dissuades him, nor understand it if he does; and how can we persuade one in such a state to change his ways?

One must learn by doing the thing, for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

We must not listen to those who advise us 'being men to think human thoughts, and being mortal to think mortal thoughts' but must put on immortality as much as possible and strain every nerve to live according to that best part of us, which, being small in bulk, yet much more in its power and honour surpasses all else.

Quality is not an act. It is a habit.

Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

Nor is he liberal who gives with pain; for he would prefer the wealth to the noble act, and this is not characteristic of a liberal man. But no more will the liberal man take from wrong sources; for such taking is not characteristic of the man who sets no store by wealth.

The Ideal age for marriage in men is 35. The Ideal age for marriage in women is 18

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.

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

Nature does nothing uselessly.

We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.

The female is, as it were, a mutilated male, and the catamenia are semen, only not pure; for there is only one thing they have not in them, the principle of soul.

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 also in the interests of a tyrant to keep his people poor, so that they may not be able to afford the cost of protecting themselves by arms and be so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for rebellion.