Aristotle Quotations | Page 2

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

Some animals are cunning and evil-disposed, as the fox; others, as the dog, are fierce, friendly, and fawning. Some are gentle and easily tamed, as the elephant; some are susceptible of shame, and watchful, as the goose. Some are jealous and fond of ornament, as the peacock.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

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

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.

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.

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

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

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

Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects - things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language - either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

Some animals utter a loud cry. Some are silent, and others have a voice, which in some cases may be expressed by a word; in others, it cannot. There are also noisy animals and silent animals, musical and unmusical kinds, but they are mostly noisy about the breeding season.

No one loves the man whom he fears.

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

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

Most people would rather give than get affection.

The eyes of some persons are large, others small, and others of a moderate size; the last-mentioned are the best. And some eyes are projecting, some deep-set, and some moderate, and those which are deep-set have the most acute vision in all animals; the middle position is a sign of the best disposition.

Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.

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.

Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

But if nothing but soul, or in soul mind, is qualified to count, it is impossible for there to be time unless there is soul, but only that of which time is an attribute, i.e. if change can exist without soul.

A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end.

The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.

Education is the best provision for old age.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

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

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

Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.

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.

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

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

The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

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.

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

It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

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.

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

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

The gods too are fond of a joke.

One must learn by doing the thing, for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try

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.

Poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of nature of universals, whereas those of history are of singulars

Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.

Most people would rather get than give affection

Pleasure causes us to do base actions and pain causes us to abstain from doing noble actions.

No democracy can exist unless each of its citizens is as capable of outrage at injustice to another as he is of outrage at unjustice to himself.

The complete man must work, study and wrestle.

Greatness of spirit is accompanied by simplicity and sincerity.

Let us first understand the facts and then we may seek the cause.

Imagination is a sort of faint perception.

Those who act receive the prizes.

It is true, indeed, that the account Plato gives in 'Timaeus' is different from what he says in his so-called 'unwritten teachings.'

A period may be defined as a portion of speech that has in itself a beginning and an end, being at the same time not too big to be taken in at a glance

For we do not think that we know a thing until we are acquainted with its primary conditions or first principles, and have carried our analysis as far as its simplest elements.

It is the repeated performance of just and temperate actions that produces virtue.

All things are full of gods.

Men become richer not only by increasing their existing wealth but also by decreasing their expenditure.

The purpose of art is to represent the meaning of things. This represents the true reality, not external aspects.

Happiness involves engagement in activities that promote one's highest potentials.

The greatest victory is over self.

Rhetoric is useful because the true and the just are naturally superior to their opposites, so that, if decisions are improperly made, they must owe their defeat to their own advocates; which is reprehensible. Further, in dealing with certain persons, even if we possessed the most accurate scientific knowledge, we should not find it 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.

Speech is the representation of the mind, and writing is the representation of speech.

Whether we will philosophize or we won't philosophize, we must philosophize.

Definition of tragedy: A hero destroyed by the excess of his virtues

For through wondering human beings now and in the beginning have been led to philosophizing.

A man becomes a friend whenever being loved he loves in return.

A friend is simply one soul in two bodies.

Be a free thinker and don't accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.

There is always something new coming out of Africa.

The character which results from wealth is that of a prosperous fool.

It is not sufficient to know what one ought to say, but one must also know how to say it.

The structural unity of the parts is such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and dis­turbed. For a thing whose presence or absence makes no visible difference is not an organic part of the whole.

Art is a higher type of knowledge than experience.

That which is excellent endures.

A life of wealth and many belongings is only a means to happiness. Honor, power, and success cannot be happiness because they depend on the whims of others, and happiness should be self-contained, complete in itself.

When the looms spin by themselves, we'll have no need for slaves.

The rattle is a toy suited to the infant mind, and education is a rattle or toy for children of larger growth.

Hippodamus, son of Euryphon, a native of Miletus, invented the art of planning and laid out the street plan of Piraeus.

Excellence is not an art. It is the habit of practice.

It seems that ambition makes most people wish to be loved rather than to love others.

There is no such thing as committing adultery with the right woman, at the right time, and in the right way, for it is simply WRONG.

We are what we repeatedly do... excellence, therefore, isn't just an act, but a habit and life isn't just a series of events, but an ongoing process of self-definition.

Emotions of any kind are produced by melody and rhythm; therefore by music a man becomes accustomed to feeling the right emotions; music has thus the power to form character, and the various kinds of music based on various modes may be distinguished by their effects on character.

Music imitates (represents) the passions or states of the soul, such as gentleness, anger, courage, temperance, and their opposites.

Hence both women and children must be educated with an eye to the constitution, if indeed it makes any difference to the virtue of a city-state that its children be virtuous, and its women too. And it must make a difference, since half the free population are women, and from children come those who participate in the constitution.

Selfishness doesn't consist in a love to yourself, but in a big degree of such love.

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

The bad man is continually at war with, and in opposition to, himself.

One cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same respect at the same time.

People do not naturally become morally excellent or practically wise. They become so, if at all, only as the result of lifelong personal and community effort.

The intelligence consists not only in the knowledge but also in the skill to apply the knowledge into practice.

When you feel yourself lacking something, send your thoughts towards your Intimate and search for the Divinity that lives within you.

Think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.

We can't learn without pain.

Try is a noisy way of doing nothing.

A tragedy is that moment where the hero comes face to face with his true identity.