Aristotle Quotes And Sayings

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, whereafter Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. At seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Plato’s Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. His writings cover many subjects and constitute the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip of Macedon, tutored Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC.

Quality Is Not An Act, It Is A Habit.

Men Create Gods After Their Own Image, Not Only With Regard To Their Form But With Regard To Their Mode Of Life.

The One Exclusive Sign Of Thorough Knowledge Is The Power Of Teaching.

We Become Just By Performing Just Action, Temperate By Performing Temperate Actions, Brave By Performing Brave Action.

A Great City Is Not To Be Confounded With A Populous One.

Suffering Becomes Beautiful When Anyone Bears Great Calamities With Cheerfulness, Not Through Insensibility But Through Greatness Of Mind.

Poetry Is Finer And More Philosophical Than History; For Poetry Expresses The Universal, And History Only The Particular.

Both Oligarch And Tyrant Mistrust The People, And Therefore Deprive Them Of Their Arms.

The Law Is Reason, Free From Passion.

He Who Is To Be A Good Ruler Must Have First Been Ruled.

It Is Clearly Better That Property Should Be Private, But The Use Of It Common; And The Special Business Of The Legislator Is To Create In Men This Benevolent Disposition.

The Young Are Permanently In A State Resembling Intoxication.

Happiness Depends Upon Ourselves.

A Constitution Is The Arrangement Of Magistracies In A State.

For One Swallow Does Not Make A Summer, Nor Does One Day; And So Too One Day, Or A Short Time, Does Not Make A Man Blessed And Happy.

In Making A Speech One Must Study Three Points: First, The Means Of Producing Persuasion; Second, The Language; Third The Proper Arrangement Of The Various Parts Of The Speech.

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 Neighbour To Have Them Through Envy.

He Who Can Be, And Therefore Is, Another's, And He Who Participates In Reason Enough To Apprehend, But Not To Have, Is A Slave By Nature.

The Duty Of Rhetoric Is To Deal With Such Matters As We Deliberate Upon Without Arts Or Systems To Guide Us, In The Hearing Of Persons Who Cannot Take In At A Glance A Complicated Argument Or Follow A Long Chain Of Reasoning.

Long-lived Persons Have One Or Two Lines Which Extend Through The Whole Hand; Short-lived Persons Have Two Lines Not Extending Through The Whole Hand.

Man Is The Only Animal Capable Of Reasoning, Though Many Others Possess The Faculty Of Memory And Instruction In Common With Him.

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.

The Worst Form Of Inequality Is To Try To Make Unequal Things Equal.

All Human Actions Have One Or More Of These Seven Causes: Chance, Nature, Compulsions, Habit, Reason, Passion, Desire.

Probable Impossibilities Are To Be Preferred To Improbable Possibilities.

No Notice Is Taken Of A Little Evil, But When It Increases It Strikes The Eye.

Politicians Also Have No Leisure, Because They Are Always Aiming At Something Beyond Political Life Itself, Power And Glory, Or Happiness.

There Was Never A Genius Without A Tincture Of Madness.

The Poet, Being An Imitator Like A Painter Or Any Other Artist, Must Of Necessity Imitate One Of Three Objects - Things As They Were Or Are, Things As They Are Said Or Thought To Be, Or Things As They Ought To Be. The Vehicle Of Expression Is Language - Either Current Terms Or, It May Be, Rare Words Or Metaphors.

Even When Laws Have Been Written Down, They Ought Not Always To Remain Unaltered.

I Have Gained This From Philosophy: That I Do Without Being Commanded What Others Do Only From Fear Of The Law.

The Whole Is More Than The Sum Of Its Parts.

The Moral Virtues, Then, Are Produced In Us Neither By Nature Nor Against Nature. Nature, Indeed, Prepares In Us The Ground For Their Reception, But Their Complete Formation Is The Product Of Habit.

Temperance Is A Mean With Regard To Pleasures.

A Sense Is What Has The Power Of Receiving Into Itself The Sensible Forms Of Things Without The Matter, In The Way In Which A Piece Of Wax Takes On The Impress Of A Signet-ring Without The Iron Or Gold.

Whosoever Is Delighted In Solitude Is Either A Wild Beast Or A God.

But If Nothing But Soul, Or In Soul Mind, Is Qualified To Count, It Is Impossible For There To Be Time Unless There Is Soul, But Only That Of Which Time Is An Attribute, I.e. If Change Can Exist Without Soul.

Persuasion Is Clearly A Sort Of Demonstration, Since We Are Most Fully Persuaded When We Consider A Thing To Have Been Demonstrated.

Some Animals Utter A Loud Cry. Some Are Silent, And Others Have A Voice, Which In Some Cases May Be Expressed By A Word; In Others, It Cannot. There Are Also Noisy Animals And Silent Animals, Musical And Unmusical Kinds, But They Are Mostly Noisy About The Breeding Season.

The Eyes Of Some Persons Are Large, Others Small, And Others Of A Moderate Size; The Last-mentioned Are The Best. And Some Eyes Are Projecting, Some Deep-set, And Some Moderate, And Those Which Are Deep-set Have The Most Acute Vision In All Animals; The Middle Position Is A Sign Of The Best Disposition.

Bring Your Desires Down To Your Present Means. Increase Them Only When Your Increased Means Permit.

Men Are Swayed More By Fear Than By Reverence.

All Virtue Is Summed Up In Dealing Justly.

We Must No More Ask Whether The Soul And Body Are One Than Ask Whether The Wax And The Figure Impressed On It Are One.

No One Would Choose A Friendless Existence On Condition Of Having All The Other Things In The World.

You Will Never Do Anything In This World Without Courage. It Is The Greatest Quality Of The Mind Next To Honor.

Most People Would Rather Give Than Get Affection.

Education Is The Best Provision For Old Age.

The Virtue Of Justice Consists In Moderation, As Regulated By Wisdom.

Therefore, The Good Of Man Must Be The End Of The Science Of Politics.