Aristotle Quotes

“We, on the other hand, must take for granted that the things that exist by nature are, either all or some of them, in motion.”

“Definition of tragedy: A hero destroyed by the excess of his virtues”

“A body in motion can maintain this motion only if it remains in contact with a mover.”

“For any two portions of fire, small or great, will exhibit the same ratio of solid to void; but the upward movement of the greater is quicker than that of the less, just as the downward movement of a mass of gold or lead, or of any other body endowed with weight, is quicker in proportion to its size.”

“Something is infinite if, taking it quantity by quantity, we can always take something outside.”

“The continuum is that which is divisible into indivisibles that are infinitely divisible.”

“Being a father is the most rewarding thing a man whose career has plateaued can do.”

“All learning is derived from things previously known.”

“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.”

“The body is most fully developed from thirty to thirty-five years of age, the mind at about forty-nine.”

“If what was said in the Ethics is true, that the happy life is the life according to virtue lived without impediment, and that virtue is a mean, then the life which is in a mean, and in a mean attainable by every one, must be the best. And the same principles of virtue and vice are characteristic of cities and of constitutions; for the constitution is in a figure the life of the city.”

“He who takes his fill of every pleasure ... becomes depraved; while he who avoids all pleasures alike ... becomes insensible.”

“The goal of war is peace, of business, leisure”

“To Thales the primary question was not what do we know, but how do we know it.”

“People never know each other until they have eaten a certain amount of salt together.”

“...for all men do their acts with a view to achieving something which is, in their view, a good.”

“There is nothing grand or noble in having the use of a slave, in so far as he is a slave; or in issuing commands about necessary things. But it is an error to suppose that every sort of rule is despotic like that of a master over slaves, for there is as great a difference between the rule over freemen and the rule over slaves as there is between slavery by nature and freedom by nature . .”

“The real difference between democracy and oligarchy is poverty and wealth. Wherever men rule by reason of their wealth, whether they be few or many, that is an oligarchy, and where the poor rule, that is a democracy.”

“For through wondering human beings now and in the beginning have been led to philosophizing.”

“As to adultery, let it be held disgraceful, in general, for any man or woman to be found in any way unfaithful when they are married, and called husband and wife. If during the time of bearing children anything of the sort occur, let the guilty person be punished with a loss of privileges in proportion to the offense.”

“...we are all inclined to ... direct our inquiry not by the matter itself, but by the views of our opponents; and, even when interrogating oneself, one pushes the inquiry only to the point at which one can no longer offer any opposition. Hence a good inquirer will be one who is ready in bringing forward the objections proper to the genus, and that he will be when he has gained an understanding of the differences.”

“Worthless persons appointed to have supreme control of weighty affairs do a lot of damage.”

“Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.”

“A right election can only be made by those who have knowledge.”

“The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.”