Aristotle Quotes (367 Quotes)

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.

All that we do is done with an eye to something else.

It is not the possessions but the desires of mankind which require to be equalized

Nature does nothing uselessly.

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

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

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.

If there is some end of the things we do ... will not knowledge of it, have a great influence on life Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what we should If so, we must try, in outline at least, to determine what it is.

The gods too are fond of a joke.

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.

A bad man can do a million times more harm than a beast

Aristotle suggests that the rotating Earth was a generally accepted tenet of Pythagorism 'While most of those who hold that the whole heaven is finite say that the earth lies at the center, the philosophers of Italy, the so-called Pythagoreans, assert the contrary. They say that in the middle there is fire, and that the earth is one of the stars, and by its circular motion round the center produces night and day.'

One swallow does not make a spring.

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

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.

Consider pleasures as they depart, not as they come.

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.

It is better for a city to be governed by a good man than by good laws.

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.

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

The basis of a democratic state is liberty.

The secret to humor is surprise.

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

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.

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

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

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

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

Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.

Anything that we have to learn we learn by the actual doing of it.... We become just by performing just acts, temperate by performing temperate ones, brave by performing brave ones.

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

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

The vigorous are no better than the lazy during one half of life, for all men are alike when asleep.

Anyone can become 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.

If purpose, then, is inherent in art, so is it in Nature also. The best illustration is the case of a man being his own physician, for Nature is like that agent and patient at once.

It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible.

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

All men seek one goal success or happiness. The only way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society. First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal-a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achie

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.

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.

The whole is more than the sum of the parts.

Law is order, and good law is good order.

The two qualities which chiefly inspire regard and affection are that a thing is your own and that it is your only one.

The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree.

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

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

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 mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.