Aristotle Quotes

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.

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

Law is mind without reason.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

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

Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.

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

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

We are what we repeatedly do.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way... you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

A friend is a second self.

A flatterer is a friend who is your inferior, or pretends to be so.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.

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

Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.

Wretched, ephemeral race, children of chance and tribulation, why do you force me to tell you the very thing which it would be most profitable for you not to hear? The very best thing is utterly beyond your reach: not to have been born, not to be, to be nothing. However, the second best thing for you is: to die soon.

The gods too are fond of a joke.

Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.

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

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

To perceive is to suffer.

One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.

Evil brings men together.

Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.

To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute.

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

Well begun is half done.

Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.

The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper

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

We must as second best...take the least of the evils.

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.

Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine actions than in the non-performance of base ones.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

The mother of revolution and crime is poverty

There are things which seem incredible to most men who have not studied mathematics.

Law is order, and good law is good order.

Anyone can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person at the right time, and for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not within everyone`s power and that is not easy.

Nature does nothing uselessly.

Man is by nature a political animal.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

Hope is a waking dream.

We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

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 the government to the utmost.

Youth is easily deceived, because it is quick to hope.

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

We make war that we may live in peace.

To die will be an awfully big adventure.

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.

Yellow-colored objects appear to be gold

The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class.

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

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 nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.

The secret to humor is surprise.

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

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

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

The basis of a democratic state is liberty.

Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil and, if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty

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.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.

Madness is badness of spirit, when one seeks profit from all sources

Wit is educated insolence.

With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it.

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.

Education is the best provision for old age.

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

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

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

One swallow does not make a summer.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

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

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.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

We live in deeds, not years: In thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.

Evil draws men together.

Philosophy is the science which considers truth

Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.

If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature`s way.

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.

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

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.

A true friend is one soul in two bodies.

Anybody can become angry-that is easy,but to be angry with 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.