Aristotle Quotes

"All men by nature desire to know."

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."

"The human good is activity of soul in accordance with virtue."

"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."

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

"One swallow does not make a summer, nor does one fine day."

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

"Man is by nature a political animal."

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."

"Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies."

"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit."

"A friend to all is a friend to none."

"He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander."

"The law is reason, free from passion."

"Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime."

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation."

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

"It is possible to fail in many ways, while to succeed is possible only in one way."

"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."

"The energy of the mind is the essence of life."

"Hope is a waking dream."

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

"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think."

"It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen."

"A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state."

"The beginning of all wisdom is wonder."

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."

"Happiness, then, is something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of action."

"One swallow does not make a spring, nor does one day; and in the same way one day or a short time does not make a man blessed and happy."

"The good of man must be the end of the science of politics."

"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst."

"Nature does nothing in vain."

"The law is reason unaffected by desire."

"The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain."

"A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility."

"No one would choose to live without friends, even if he had all other goods."

"The happy man needs friends."

"The best life is one that is lived in accordance with virtue and reason."

"Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good."

"Happiness belongs to the class of things precious and final."

"Virtues arise in us neither by nature nor contrary to nature; we are fitted by nature to receive them, and are brought to completion by habit."

"Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, determined by reason."

"States of character arise out of like activities."

"Anybody 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 is not easy."

"It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize."

"The wise man must not be ordered but must order, and he must not obey another, but the less wise must obey him."

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

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

"The soul never thinks without a mental image."

"Memory is the scribe of the soul."

"Time is the measure of motion."

"Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life."

"The good for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue."

"Perfect friendship is the friendship of those who are good and alike in virtue."

"Friendship is most necessary for our life."

"Even when people are alone, life is not easy; without friends, no one would choose to live."

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

"Knowing what is good is not enough; we must also be able to act upon it."

"If, then, there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake, clearly this must be the chief good."

"Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right?"

"The end of the science of strategy is victory, of economics wealth, and of medicine health."

"Knowledge of the chief good has a great influence on how we live our lives."

"The study of the highest good is the most important task for anyone who wishes to live well."

"Fine and just actions admit of much variety and fluctuation of opinion."

"The man who has been well brought up has, or can easily get, starting points for sound judgment."

"The end aimed at is not knowledge but action."

"Knowledge about practical matters is of great benefit to those who desire and act according to reason."

"Men of practical wisdom seek honour among those who know them and on the ground of their virtue."

"Possession of virtue is not enough; it must be exercised in action."

"Human good is achieved through activity, not through the mere possession of good qualities."

"The function of a good man is the noble performance of the activities that belong to human life."

"An action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate principle."

"The chief good is something final, pursued for its own sake rather than merely as a means to something else."

"The ends of the master arts are more desirable than the ends of the subordinate arts."

"Those who act in accordance with a rational principle gain great benefit from knowledge."

"We must begin with things known to us and proceed toward the principles we seek to understand."

"The fact is the starting point of knowledge."

"Each man judges well the things he knows, and of these he is a good judge."

"The man educated in a subject is a good judge of that subject."

"Practical wisdom is concerned with things human and with matters about which deliberation is possible."

"Deliberation concerns things that are in our power and can be brought about by action."

"We deliberate not about ends but about means."

"The end being what we wish for, the means are what we deliberate about and choose."

"Virtue and vice are concerned with the things that are in our power."

"Without acting well, no one can become good."

"The person who acts well must also act at the right time and in the right manner."

"Great and noble actions require judgment, choice, and a clear understanding of what is worth pursuing."

"Education is the best provision for old age."

"Those who educate children well are more to be honored than those who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well."

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

"The mark of an educated man is to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits."

"The man who has been educated in a subject is a good judge of that subject."

"Knowledge about practical matters will be of great benefit to those who desire and act in accordance with reason."

"Virtue is formed by habit and practice."

"Education should be one and the same for all citizens."

"Education should be regulated by law and should be an affair of the state."

"The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives."