Aristotle Quotes

“Law is mind without reason.”

“That which is impossible and probable is better than that which is possible and improbable.”

“Now the goodness that we have to consider is clearly human goodness, since the good or happiness which we set out to seek was human good and human happiness. But human goodness means in our view excellence of soul, not excellence of body.”

“Ancient laws remain in force long after the people have the power to change them.”

“A friend to all is a friend to none.”

“Why do men seek honour? Surely in order to confirm the favorable opinion they have formed of themselves.”

“The honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.”

“Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.”

“The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.”

“What we know is not capable of being otherwise; of things capable of being otherwise we do not know, when they have passed outsideour observation, whether they exist or not. Therefore the object of knowledge is of necessity. Therefore it is eternal; for things that are of necessity in the unqualified sense are all eternal; and things that are eternal are ungenerated and imperishable.”

“The ideal man is his own best friend and takes delight in privacy.”

“Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine ACTIONS than in the non-performance of base ones.”

“Salt water when it turns into vapour becomes sweet, and the vapour does not form salt water when it condenses again. This I know by experiment. The same thing is true in every case of the kind: wine and all fluids that evaporate and condense back into a liquid state become water. They all are water modified by a certain admixture, the nature of which determines their flavour.”

“Whereas the law is passionless, passion must ever sway the heart of man.”

“Hence both women and children must be educated with an eye to the constitution, if indeed it makes any difference to the virtue of a city-state that its children be virtuous, and its women too. And it must make a difference, since half the free population are women, and from children come those who participate in the constitution.”

“Nature creates nothing without a purpose.”

“All that one gains by falsehood is, not to be believed when he speaks the truth.”

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

“Shipping magnate of the 20th century If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.”

“There are, then, three states of mind ... two vices--that of excess, and that of defect; and one virtue--the mean; and all these are in a certain sense opposed to one another; for the extremes are not only opposed to the mean, but also to one another; and the mean is opposed to the extremes.”

“[Prudence] is the virtue of that part of the intellect [the calculative] to which it belongs; and . . . our choice of actions will not be right without Prudence any more than without Moral Virtue, since, while Moral Virtue enables us to achieve the end, Prudence makes us adopt the right means to the end.”

“Love is the cause of unity in all things.”

“He then alone will strictly be called brave who is fearless of a noble death, and of all such chances as come upon us with sudden death in their train.”

“The virtue as the art consecrates itself constantly to what's difficult to do, and the harder the task, the shinier the success.”

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”

“Life is only meaningful when we are striving for a goal .”

“...the life which is best for men, both separately, as individuals, and in the mass, as states, is the life which has virtue sufficiently supported by material resources to facilitate participation in the actions that virtue calls for.”

“Courage is the first virtue that makes all other virtues possible.”

“All are agreed that the various moral qualities are in a sense bestowed by nature: we are just, and capable of temperance, and brave, and possessed of the other virtues from the moment of our birth. But nevertheless we expect to find that true goodness is something different, and that the virtues in the true sense come to belong to us in another way. For even children and wild animals possess the natural dispositions, yet without Intelligence these may manifestly be harmful.”

“There is always something new coming out of Africa.”

“The state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.”

“Happiness does not consist in amusement. In fact, it would be strange if our end were amusement, and if we were to labor and suffer hardships all our life long merely to amuse ourselves.... 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.”

“Happiness is the highest good”

“People generally despise where they flatter.”

“[this element], the seat of the appetites and of desire in general, does in a sense participate in principle, as being amenable and obedient to it”

“Now all orators effect their demonstrative proofs by allegation either of enthymems or examples, and, besides these, in no other way whatever.”

“Man by Nature desires to know.”

“A democracy exists whenever those who are free and are not well-off, being in the majority, are in sovereign control of government, an oligarchy when control lies with the rich and better-born, these being few.”

“But a man's best friend is the one who not only wishes him well but wishes it for his own sake (even though nobody will ever know it): and this condition is best fulfilled by his attitude towards himself - and similarly with all the other attributes that go to define a friend. For we have said before that all friendly feelings for others are extensions of a man's feelings for himself.”

“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.”

“Those who believe 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.”

“The true forms of government, therefore, are those in which the one, or the few, or the many, govern with a view to the common interest; but governments which rule with a view to the private interest, whether of the one or of the few, or of the many, are perversions. For the members of a state, if they are truly citizens, ought to participate in its advantages.”

“Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil and, if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty.”

“Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in excellence; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves.”

“Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect they are equal absolutely.”

“Whether we call it sacrifice, or poetry, or adventure, it is always the same voice that calls.”

“Well begun is half done.”

“Knowing what is right does not make a sagacious man.”

“Most people would rather give than get affection.”

“And this activity alone would seem to be loved for its own sake; for nothing arises from it apart from the contemplating, while from practical activities we gain more or less apart from the action. And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.”