Aristotle Quotes
Aristotle Quotes
Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
But since there is but one aim for the entire state, it follows that education must be one and the same for all, and that the responsibility for it must be a public one, not the private affair which it now is, each man looking after his own children and teaching them privately whatever private curriculum he thinks they ought to study.
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
Since the branch of philosophy on which we are at present engaged differs from the others in not being a subject of merely intellectual interest — I mean we are not concerned to know what goodness essentially is, but how we are to become good
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
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.
It concerns us to know the purposes we seek in life, for then, like archers aiming at a definite mark, we shall be more likely to attain what we want.
To perceive is to suffer.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
If one way is better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.
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 then nature makes nothing without some end in view, nothing to no purpose, it must be that nature has made all of them for the sake of man.
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou does every act in life as though it were thy last.
Remember that time slurs over everything, let all deeds fade, blurs all writings and kills all memories. Exempt are only those which dig into the hearts of men by love.
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
The quality of life is determined by its activities.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
Rhetoric is useful because truth and justice are in their nature stronger than their opposites; so that if decisions be made, not in conformity to the rule of propriety, it must have been that they have been got the better of through fault of the advocates themselves: and this is deserving reprehension.
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
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Aristotle Quotes on Ethics
We are what We Repeatedly do
The good for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, or if there are more kinds of virtue than one, in accordance with the best and most perfect kind.
For contemplation is both the highest form of activity (since the intellect is the highest thing in us, and the objects that it apprehends are the highest things that can be known), and also it is the most continuous because we are more capable of continuous contemplation than we are of any practical activity.
Happiness, then, is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.
Aristotle Quotes on Goodness
other’s influence). But the friendship of the good is good, and increases in goodness because of their association. They seem even to become better men by exercising their friendship and improving each other; for the traits that they admire in each other get transferred to themselves.
There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions–that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited
Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be, and similarly everything that depends on art or any rational cause, and especially if it depends on the best of all causes.
men, for this alone gives the study its practical value — we must apply our minds to the solution of the problems of conduct.
Aristotle Quotes on Emotional Intelligence
Anyone can be angry–that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree,
at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way–that is not easy.
Aristotle Quotes on the Soul
Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it.
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.
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
The heart is the perfection of the whole organism. Therefore, the principles of the power of perception and the souls ability to nourish itself must lie in the heart.
Aristotle Quotes on Separation of Powers
Separation of Powers is A Problem for Forging Police
Aristotle Quotes on habit
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle Quotes about Life
The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.
It is best to rise from life as fro a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.
Aristotle Quotes on Poetics
With respect to the requirement of art, the probable impossible is always preferable to the improbable possible.
The plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy; Character holds the second place.
All human happiness or misery takes the form of action the end for which we live is a certain kind of action.
Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.
Aristotle Quotes on Politics
What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
Man is by nature a political animal.
one Greek city-state had a fundamental law: anyone proposing revisions to the constitution did so with a noose around his neck. If his proposal lost he was instantly hanged.
Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
Aristotle Quotes about Democracy
No democracy can exist unless each of its citizens is as capable of outrage at injustice to another as he is of outrage at injustice to himself.
Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.
Democracy arose from men’s thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.
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.
Aristotle Quotes about Criticism
Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. Aristotle
There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.
Aristotle Quotes about Success
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.
Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
It is the simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.
Aristotle Quotes Legally Blonde
On our very first day at Harvard, a very wise professor quoted Aristotle, the law is reason free from passion. Well…no offense to Aristotle, but in my 3 years at Harvard I have come to find that passion is a key ingredient to the study and practice of law…and of life. It is with passion, courage of conviction, and strong sense of self that we take our next steps into the world. Remembering that first impression are not always correct…You must always have faith in people, but, most importantly, you must always have faith…in yourself. Congratulations, Class of 2004!! WE DID IT!!
Aristotle Quotes about Youth
Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because life is sweet and they are growing.
The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.
All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
Aristotle Quotes on Contentment
Happiness is self-contentedness.
Aristotle Quotes Alexander the Great
It is no use putting to death the men you have conquered; for their land will, by the laws of nature, breed another generation which will be similar. The character of these men is determined by the nature of the air of their country and the waters they habitually drink. The best course for you is to accept them as they are, and to seek to accommodate them to your concepts by winning them over through kindness
Aristotle Quotes on Love
The final cause, then, produces motion through being loved.
Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also to those who need it so much.
For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.
Wicked me obey from fear; good men, from love.
Aristotle Quotes on Marriage
The Ideal age for marriage in men is 35. The Ideal age for marriage in women is 18.
Aristotle Quotes on Rhetoric
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.
easy to persuade them by the employment of such knowledge. For scientific discourse is concerned with instruction, but in the case of such persons instruction is impossible.
