Aristotle Quotes

“It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.”

“Good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.”

“Because the rich are generally few in number, while the poor are many, they appear to be antagonistic, and as the one or the other prevails they form the government. Hence arises the common opinion that there are two kinds of government - democracy and oligarchy.”

“Moral virtue is ... a mean between two vices, that of excess and that of defect, and ... it is no small task to hit the mean in each case, as it is not, for example, any chance comer, but only the geometer, who can find the center of a given circle.”

“Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities.”

“We maintain, and have said in the Ethics, if the arguments there adduced are of any value, that happiness is the realization and perfect exercise of virtue, and this not conditional, but absolute. And I used the term 'conditional' to express that which is indispensable, and 'absolute' to express that which is good in itself.”

“Experience has shown that it is difficult, if not impossible, for a populous state to be run by good laws.”

“Finally, if nothing can be truly asserted, even the following claim would be false, the claim that there is no true assertion.”

“It is clear, then, that the earth must be at the centre and immovable, not only for the reasons already given, but also because heavy bodies forcibly thrown quite straight upward return to the point from which they started, even if they are thrown to an infinite distance. From these considerations then it is clear that the earth does not move and does not lie elsewhere than at the centre.”

“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.”

“Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity.”

“Everything necessarily is or is not, and will be or will not be; but one cannot divide and say that one or the other is necessary.I mean, for example: it is necessary for there to be or not to be a sea-battle tomorrow; but it is not necessary for a sea-battle to take place tomorrow, or for one not to take place--though it is necessary for one to take place or not to take place.”

“Metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge of unprovable starting-points concepts and truth and demonstrative knowledge of what follows from them.”

“All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.”

“If the poor, for example, because they are more in number, divide among themselves the property of the rich,- is not this unjust? . . this law of confiscation clearly cannot be just.”

“Man is by nature a political animal.”

“Speeches are like babies-easy to conceive but hard to deliver.”

“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.”

“Before you heal the body you must first heal the mind”

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

“When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.”

“What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.”

“A government which is composed of the middle class more nearly approximates to democracy than to oligarchy, and is the safest of the imperfect forms of government.”

“Health is a matter of choice, not a mystery of chance”

“All men by nature desire knowledge.”