Aristotle Quotes

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

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.

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

Most people would rather give than get affection.

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

To attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world.

The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.

Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.

A person's life persuades better than his word.

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

While fiction is often impossible, it should not be implausible.

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

To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.

Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.

Intuition is the source of scientific knowledge.

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

Obstinate people can be divided into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish.

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

The physician heals, Nature makes well.

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

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross; there lies your vocation.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

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

For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honour the truth first.

The soul suffers when the body is diseased or traumatized, while the body suffers when the soul is ailing.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

All Earthquakes and Disasters are warnings; there’s too much corruption in the world

No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.

No one who desires to become good will become good unless he does good things.

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.

The mass of mankind are evidently slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts.

The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.

Truth is a remarkable thing. We cannot miss knowing some of it. But we cannot know it entirely.

No one loves the man whom he fears.

Beauty is the gift of God

Piety requires us to honour truth above our friends.

Money is a guarantee that we can have what we want in the future

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.

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

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.

Perception starts with the eye.

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.

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

Greatness of spirit is accompanied by simplicity and sincerity.

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.

The best way to avoid envy is to deserve the success you get.

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.

All men seek one goal: success or happiness.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

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

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

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.

Change in all things is sweet.

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

No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.

We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.

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.

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard t`o their form but with regard to their mode of life.

A statement is persuasive and credible either because it is directly self-evident or because it appears to be proved from other statements that are so.

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

Man is the only animal capable of reasoning, though many others possess the faculty of memory and instruction in common with him.

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

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

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

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

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

A friend to all is a friend to none.

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

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

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.

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.

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

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

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

Nature does nothing uselessly.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

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

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

Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.

No happy man can become miserable, for he will never do acts that are hateful and mean.

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

To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.

We cannot learn without pain.

Happiness is a state of activity.

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.

All men by nature desire to know.

There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

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.

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.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

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

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

Hope is the dream of a waking man.

Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.

Wit is educated insolence.

The end of labor is to gain leisure.

Friendship is essentially a partnership.

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

It's best to rise from life like a banquet, neither thirsty or drunken.

Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.

Education is the best provision for old age.

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

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

Cruel is the strife of brothers.

The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.

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

It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.

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

The law is reason, free from passion.

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.

We acquire a particular quality by acting in a particular way.

All proofs rest on premises.

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

The actuality of thought is life.