He was a great figure in Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic, biology, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance, and theatre. He was a student of Plato who in turn studied under Socrates.
He was more empirically-minded than Plato or Socrates and is famous for rejecting Plato’s theory of forms. Aristotle was a prolific writer and polymath, who radically influenced most areas of knowledge he touched. He was the father of the field of logic, he was the first to develop a formalized system for reasoning.
Aristotle gave special prominence to good reasoning combined with his deep belief in the scientific method forms. (384 – 322 BCE)
– Aristotle Quotes –
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
He who hath many friends hath none.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.
~ Aristotle
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
~ Aristotle
For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.
~ Aristotle
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
~ Aristotle
He who can be, and therefore is, another’s, and he who participates in reason enough to apprehend, but not to have, is a slave by nature.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
~ Aristotle
The gods too are fond of a joke.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
~ Aristotle
It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
~ Aristotle
Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in excellence; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves.
~ Aristotle
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
~ Aristotle
Man is by nature a political animal.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.
~ Aristotle
Bad men are full of repentance.
~ Aristotle
Wit is educated insolence.
~ Aristotle
Well begun is half done.
~ Aristotle
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
~ Aristotle
The law is reason, free from passion.
~ Aristotle
Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
~ Aristotle
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
~ Aristotle
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
~ Aristotle
Education is the best provision for old age.
~ Aristotle
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
~ Aristotle
Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
~ Aristotle
Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
~ Aristotle
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
~ Aristotle
The secret to humor is surprise.
~ Aristotle
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
~ Aristotle
We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
~ Aristotle
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
~ Aristotle
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
~ Aristotle
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
~ Aristotle
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
~ Aristotle
A friend to all is a friend to none.
~ Aristotle
Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
~ Aristotle
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
~ Aristotle
The soul never thinks without a picture.
~ Aristotle
Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
~ Aristotle
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
~ Aristotle
A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.
~ Aristotle
Nature does nothing in vain.
~ Aristotle
Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
~ Aristotle
Hope is a waking dream.
~ Aristotle
No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.
~ Aristotle
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
~ Aristotle
A true friend is one soul in two bodies.
~ Aristotle
Change in all things is sweet.
~ Aristotle
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
~ Aristotle
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
~ Aristotle
It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.
~ Aristotle
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
~ Aristotle
We make war that we may live in peace.
~ Aristotle
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
~ Aristotle
Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.
~ Aristotle
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
~ Aristotle
Man is naturally a political animal.
~ Aristotle
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.
~ Aristotle
I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
~ Aristotle
In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.
~ Aristotle
Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
~ Aristotle
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
~ Aristotle
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
~ Aristotle
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
~ Aristotle
Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
~ Aristotle
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.
~ Aristotle
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
~ Aristotle
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
~ Aristotle
Most people would rather give than get affection.
~ Aristotle
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
~ Aristotle
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
~ Aristotle
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
~ Aristotle
Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.
~ Aristotle
No one loves the man whom he fears.
~ Aristotle
The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
~ Aristotle
In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
~ Aristotle
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
Hope is the dream of a waking man.
~ Aristotle
The state is a creation of nature and man is by nature a political animal.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
~ Aristotle
Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.
~ Aristotle
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
~ Aristotle
We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
~ Aristotle
The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.
~ Aristotle
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
~ Aristotle
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
~ Aristotle
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
~ Aristotle
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
~ Aristotle
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
~ Aristotle
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
~ Aristotle
Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.
~ Aristotle
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
~ Aristotle
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
~ Aristotle
He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.
~ Aristotle
Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.
~ Aristotle
For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.
~ Aristotle
All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
~ Aristotle
For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.
~ Aristotle
Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
~ Aristotle
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
~ Aristotle
No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
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.
~ Aristotle
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
~ Aristotle
All men by nature desire knowledge.
~ Aristotle
Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.
~ Aristotle
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
~ Aristotle
A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
~ Aristotle
The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
~ Aristotle
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
~ Aristotle
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
~ Aristotle
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
~ Aristotle
There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
~ Aristotle
