Words matter. These are the best Aristotle Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
No one loves the man whom he fears.
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.
Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
All men by nature desire knowledge.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
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 must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.
The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
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.
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.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.
No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
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.
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.
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
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.
Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
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.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
Man is the only animal capable of reasoning, though many others possess the faculty of memory and instruction in common with him.
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.
For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.
We make war that we may live in peace.
Law is mind without reason.
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.
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.
Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.
Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
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.
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.
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.
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
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.
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
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.
It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.
The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
Long-lived persons have one or two lines which extend through the whole hand; short-lived persons have two lines not extending through the whole hand.
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.
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.
Hope is a waking dream.
The true and the approximately true are apprehended by the same faculty; it may also be noted that men have a sufficient natural instinct for what is true, and usually do arrive at the truth. Hence the man who makes a good guess at truth is likely to make a good guess at probabilities.
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
The law is reason, free from passion.
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.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
