Quotes by Aristotle

Aristotle (384 BCE - March 7, 322 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on diverse subjects, including physics, poetry, biology and zoology, logic, rhetoric, politics and government, and ethics. Along with Socrates and Plato, Aristotle was one of the most influential of ancient Greek philosophers. They transformed Presocratic Greek philosophy into the foundations of Western philosophy as we know it. Some consider Plato and Aristotle to have founded two of the most important schools of Ancient philosophy; others consider Aristotelianism as a development and concretization of Plato's insights..

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

Aristotle on responsibility

"In revolutions the occasions may be trifling but great interest are at stake."

Aristotle on evolution

"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."

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

Aristotle on self-control
19 fans of this quote

"Nor was civil society founded merely to preserve the lives of its members; but that they might live well: for otherwise a state might be composed of slaves, or the animal creation... nor is it an alliance mutually to defend each other from injuries, or for a commercial intercourse. But whosoever endeavors to establish wholesome laws in a state, attends to the virtues and vices of each individual who composes it; from whence it is evident, that the first care of him who would found a city, truly deserving that name, and not nominally so, must be to have his citizens virtuous."

Aristotle on society

"The soul never thinks without a picture."

Aristotle on soul
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"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."

Aristotle on soul

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

Aristotle on suffering
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"We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action."

Aristotle on action
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"Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions."

Aristotle on action
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"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."

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

Aristotle on action
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"Well begun is half done."

Aristotle on action
13 fans of this quote

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

Aristotle on character
7 fans of this quote

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

Aristotle on character
13 fans of this quote

"The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching."

Aristotle on teacher
8 fans of this quote

"Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy."

Aristotle on temperament
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"The true end of tragedy is to purify the passions."

Aristotle on tragedies
3 fans of this quote

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

Aristotle on truth
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"Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth."

Aristotle on truth
4 fans of this quote

"All virtue is summed up in dealing justly."

Aristotle on virtue

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

Aristotle on virtue

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

Aristotle on virtue
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"Wit is educated insolence."

Aristotle on wit
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"Melancholy men are of all others the most witty."

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

Aristotle on wonder

"To write well, express yourself like common people, but think like a wise man. Or, think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do."

Aristotle on writers and writing
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"The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication."

Aristotle on youth
6 fans of this quote

"They [Young People] have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things -- and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning -- all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else."

Aristotle on youth
5 fans of this quote

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

Aristotle on life
3 fans of this quote

"Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age."

Aristotle on confidence

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

Aristotle on courage
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"It is easy to fly into a passion... anybody can do that, but to be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right time and in the right way that is not easy."

Aristotle on courage
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"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."

Aristotle on courage
13 fans of this quote

"Every rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal."

Aristotle on crime and criminals

"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."

Aristotle on crisis
5 fans of this quote

"The Good of man is the active exercise of his souls faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue, or if there be several human excellences or virtues, in conformity with the best and most perfect among them. "

Aristotle on uncategorised

"[The educated differ from the uneducated] as much as the living from the dead. "

Aristotle on uncategorised
3 fans of this quote

"When several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing, the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life. "

Aristotle on uncategorised

"[The argument of Alcidamas:] Everyone honours the wise. Thus the Parians have honoured Archilochus, in spite of his bitter tongue; the Chians Homer, though he was not their countryman; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, though she was a woman; the Lacedaemonians actually made Chilon a member of their senate, though they are the least literary of men; the inhabitants of Lampsacus gave public burial to Anaxagoras, though he was an alien, and honour him even to this day. "

Aristotle on uncategorised

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