Aristotle Quotes
Most popular Aristotle Quotes
We are what we repeatedly do.
Hope is a waking dream.
Beauty is a gift of god.
Wit is educated insolence.
Nature does nothing uselessly.
Law is reason free from passion.
What soon grows old? Gratitude.
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
The actuality of thought is life.
Hope is the dream of a waking man.
All men by nature desire knowledge.
Moral virtue is the child of habit.
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
Man is by nature a political animal.
A man is the original of his actions.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
We make war that we may live in peace.
The soul never thinks without a picture.
Wonder is the first cause of philosophy.
Law is order, and good law is good order.
All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
What is justice? To give every man his due.
Education is the best provision for old age.
Melancholy men of all others are most witty.
Friendship is one soul abiding in two bodies.
Our characters are the result of our conduct.
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.
To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice.
Philosophy is the science which considers truth.
All we do is done with an eye to something else.
Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.
It would be wrong to put friendship before truth.
Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
No great genius has ever been without some madness.
In the naming of things one must go with the crowd.
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Consider pleasures as they depart, not as they come.
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
All that we do is done with an eye to something else.
There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
When Pleasure is at the bar the jury is not impartial.
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Of man in general, the parts are greater than the whole.
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity.
Of mankind in general, the parts are greater than the whole.
All art, all education, can be merely a supplement to nature.
The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.
What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
The good man thinks it is more blessed to give than to receive.
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
Those who have never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.
Democracy is the form of government in which the free are rulers.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Those who wish to succeed must ask the right preliminary questions.
Everyone thinks chiefly of his own, hardly ever of public interest.
Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.
My best friend is one who is wishing me well wishes, it for my sake.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
Good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
The one exclusive sign of a thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
Whereas the law is passionless, passion must ever sway the heart of man.
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
Whereas the law is passionless, passion must ever sway the hearts of men.
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.
It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.
We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
Patience is so like fortitude that she seems either her sister or her daughter.
If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.
That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.
The state exists for the sake of a good life, and not for the sake of life only.
In educating the young we use pleasure and pain as rudders to steer their course.
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
Dignity and nobility does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
The young are in a state like intoxication, for youth is sweet and they are growing.
To learn is a natural pleasure, not confined to philosophers, but common to all men.
To be acceptable as scientific knowledge a truth must be a deduction from other truths.
Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
To the query, "What is a friend?" his reply was, "A single soul dwelling in two bodies."
Virtue is a mean state between two vices, the one of excess and the other of deficiency.
With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it.
We are better able to study our neighbors than ourselves, and their actions than our own.
Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.
Poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history.
Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.
We will more easily accomplish what is proper if, like archers, we have a target in sight.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
The family is the association established by nature for the supply of a man's everyday wants.
How many a dispute could have been deflated if the disputants had dared to define their terms.
The life of children, as much as that of intemperate men, is wholly governed by their desires.
The unfortunate need people who will be kind to them; the prosperous need people to be kind to.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separate from law and justice, he is the worst.
Good has two meanings: it means that which is good absolutely and that which is good for somebody.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things but their inward significance.
At his best, man is the noblest of all the animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
No man would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.
The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication; for youth is sweet and they are growing.
In the area of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.
The Good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue.
In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.
Democracy arose from people who thought that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.
A man with a host of friends who slaps on the back every man he meets is regarded as the friend of nobody.
Man is a goal seeking animal. Our life only has meaning if we are reaching out and striving for our goals.
A king ruleth as he ought; a tyrant as the lest; a king to the profit of all, a tyrant only to please a few.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness, and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
The difference between an educated and uneducated man is the same difference as between being alive and being dead.
If, in a word, it be in our power to do what is noble and what is disgraceful, it is equally in our power not to do it.
It is not ill-bred to adopt a high manner with the great and the powerful, but it is vulgar to lord it over humble people.
Every action must be due to one or other of seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reasoning, anger, or appetite.
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.
For as bats' eyes are to daylight so is our intellectual eye to those truths which are, in their own nature, the most obvious of all.
If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.
All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends upon the education of youth.
Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
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.
Quite often good things have hurtful consequences. There are instances of men who have been ruined by their money or killed by their courage.
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.
One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly, one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.
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.
It really lies in this: the one describes what has happened, the other what might. Hence poetry speaks of what is universal, history of what is particular.
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.
This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.
Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.
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.
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.
Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.
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.
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.
Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.
The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.
Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or excellence, or both, is more often found with those who are most highly cultivated in their mind and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
The family is the association established by nature for the supply of man's everyday wants.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
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.
