Aristotle Quotes

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

A friend to all is a friend to none.

Patience s bitter, but it's fruit is sweet.

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.

To perceive is to suffer.

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

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

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Learning is not child's play; we cannot learn without pain.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

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

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

Happiness is a quality of the soul...not a function of one's material circumstances.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.

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

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

Wit is educated insolence.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.

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.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

Nature does nothing in vain.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

We make war that we may live in peace.

The law is reason, free from passion.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy.

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

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

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.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

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.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

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

Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.

We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

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

Memory is the scribe of the soul.

The soul never thinks without a picture.

The least deviation from truth will be multiplied later.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way... you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

The gods too are fond of a joke.

The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.

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

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.

If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.

Happiness is a state of activity.

All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.

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

Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.

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

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.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

Man is by nature a political animal.

Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because life is sweet and they are growing.

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

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.

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

He who hath many friends hath none.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.

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

Those who cannot bravely face danger are the slaves of their attackers.

There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.

The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order symmetry and limitations; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.

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.

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.

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

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

It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.

Wicked men obey out of fear. good men, out of love

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

There is no genius who hasn't a touch of insanity.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.

Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

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

First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.

It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.

Friends are an aid to the young, to guard them from error; to the elderly, to attend to their wants and to supplement their failing power of action; to those in the prime of life, to assist them to noble deeds.

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

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

For what is the best choice for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.

And of course, the brain is not responsible for any of the sensations at all. The correct view is that the seat and source of sensation is the region of the heart.

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

To die will be an awfully big adventure.

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.

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.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

Yellow-colored objects appear to be gold

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

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

The mother of revolution and crime is poverty

One swallow does not make spring.

Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.

This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.

Education is the best provision for old age.

We can't learn without pain.

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

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

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 coward calls the brave man rash, the rash man calls him a coward.

Happiness is the utilization of one's talents along lines of excellence.

The secret to humor is surprise.

The goal of war is peace, of business, leisure

The basis of a democratic state is liberty

They should rule who are able to rule best.

Philosophy is the science which considers truth.

Teaching is the highest form of understanding.

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

Law is order, and good law is good order.

It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way.

Evils draw men together.

A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.

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

We are what we repeatedly do.

The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement.

A democracy is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no property, and vulgar employments.

A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle and an end.

I say that habit's but a long practice, friend, and this becomes men's nature in the end.

Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity.

Madness is badness of spirit, when one seeks profit from all sources.

Men in general desire the good and not merely what their fathers had.

No one will dare maintain that it is better to do injustice than to bear it.

It was through the feeling of wonder that men now and at first began to philosophize.

What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.

Law is mind without reason.

Civil confusions often spring from trifles but decide great issues.

Beauty is the gift of God

The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.

Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.

Shame is an ornament to the young; a disgrace to the old.

Melancholy men, of all others, are the most witty.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids.

Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses.

It is more difficult to organize a peace than to win a war; but the fruits of victory will be lost if the peace is not organized.

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange. . . .Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not mere companionship.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

God has many names, though He is only one Being.

It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.

Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.

The true end of tragedy is to purify the passions.

Revolutions are not about trifles, but spring from trifles.

A true friend is one soul divided into two people.

The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class.

Bad men are full of repentance.

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.

It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.

We must as second best, as people say, take the least of the evils.

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

One swallow does not make a spring, nor does one fine day.

Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies.

Well begun is half done.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.