Aristotle Quotes

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

He who thus considers things in their first growth and origin ... will obtain the clearest view of them.

He who is by nature not his own but another's man is by nature a slave.

In general, what is written must be easy to read and easy to speak; which is the same.

Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect they are equal absolutely.

He who takes his fill of every pleasure ... becomes depraved; while he who avoids all pleasures alike ... becomes insensible.

The life of children, as much as that of intemperate men, is wholly governed by their desires.

Since the things we do determine the character of life, no blessed person can become unhappy. For he will never do those things which are hateful and petty.

And it is characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like, and the association of living beings who have this sense makes family and a state.

All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves...

Praise invariably implies a reference to a higher standard.

. . . Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.

Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice.

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

Man's best friend is one who wishes well to the object of his wish for his sake, even if no one is to know of it.

What is the highest of all goods achievable by action? ...both the general run of man and people of superior refinement say that it is happiness ...but with regard to what happiness is they differ.

Some believe it to be just friends wanting, as if to be healthy enough to wish health.

Where the laws are not supreme, there demagogues spring up.

It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.

We are not angry with people we fear or respect, as long as we fear or respect them; you cannot be afraid of a person and also at the same time angry with him.

The line between lawful and unlawful abortion will be marked by the fact of having sensation and being alive.

No science ever defends its first principles.

The guest will judge better of a feast than the cook

Metaphysics is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance. ... And here we will have the science to study that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which it has.

We cannot ... prove geometrical truths by arithmetic.

Beauty is a gift of God.

If 'bounded by a surface' is the definition of body there cannot be an infinite body either intelligible or sensible.

Here and elsewhere we shall not obtain the best insight into things until we actually see them growing from the beginning.

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.

Art completes what nature cannot bring to finish. The artist gives us knowledge of nature's unrealized ends.

Either a beast or a god.

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.

But nature flies from the infinite; for the infinite is imperfect, and nature always seeks an end.

To die in order to avoid the pains of poverty, love, or anything that is disagreeable, is not the part of a brave man, but of a coward.

Prayers and sacrifices are of no avail.

The basis of a democratic state is liberty

To be ignorant of motion is to be ignorant of nature

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

In a polity, each citizen is to possess his own arms, which are not supplied or owned by the state.

All art is concerned with coming into being; for it is concerned neither with things that are, or come into being by necessity, nor with things that do so in accordance with nature.

What is common to many is least taken care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than what they possess in common with others.

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

Happiness, then, is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.

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

Irrational passions would seem to be as much a part of human nature as is reason.

There is a preppy wabi-sabi to soft, faded khakis and cotton shirts, but it's not nice to be surrounded by things that are worn out or stained or used up.

Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.

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

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

Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.