Top 25 Quotes by Aristotle of 1272 - Page 18

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

Philosophical, Tyrants, People

Aristotle (1971). “On Man in the Universe”

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

Anger, Men, Praise

Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.99, Wordsworth Editions

Wickedness is nourished by lust.

Aristotle

Lust, Wickedness

A man who examines each subject from a philosophical standpoint cannot neglect them: he has to omit nothing, and state the truth about each topic.

Aristotle

Philosophical, Men, Political

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.

Aristotle

Happiness, Laughter, Joy

Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1860, Princeton University Press

Nature, as we say, does nothing without some purpose; and for thepurpose of making mana political animal she has endowed him alone among the animals with the power of reasoned speech.

Aristotle

Animal, Political, Doe

c.330 BC Politics, bk.1, ch.2,1253b (translated by T A Sinclair).

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

Aristotle

Military, Firsts, Rulers

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (1967). “Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study”

Tools may be animate as well as inanimate; for instance, a ship's captain uses a lifeless rudder, but a living man for watch; for a servant is, from the point of view of his craft, categorized as one of its tools. So any piece of property can be regarded as a tool enabling a man to live, and his property is an assemblage of such tools; a slave is a sort of living piece of property; and like any other servant is a tool in charge of other tools.

Aristotle

Men, Views, Watches

Every man should be responsible to others, nor should anyone be allowed to do just as he pleases; for where absolute freedom is allowed there is nothing to restrain the evil which is inherent in every man. But the principle of responsibility secures that which is the greatest good in states; the right persons rule and are prevented from doing wrong, and the people have their due. It is evident that this is the best kind of democracy, and why? because the people are drawn from a certain class.

Aristotle

Responsibility, Men, Class

Aristotle, (2016). “Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens”, p.169, Princeton University Press

Teachers, who educate children, deserve more honour than parents, who merely gave them birth; for the latter provided mere life, while the former ensure a good life.

Aristotle

Teacher, Children, Good Life

Every great genius has an admixture of madness.

Aristotle

Genius, Madness, Sanity

Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be, and similarly everything that depends on art or any rational cause, and especially if it depends on the best of all causes.

Aristotle

Art, Causes, Action

Aristotle (2016). “Pocket Aristotle”, p.170, Simon and Schuster

With respect to the requirement of art, the probable impossible is always preferable to the improbable possible.

Aristotle

Art, Requirements, Impossible

Life in the true sense is perceiving or thinking.

Aristotle

Philosophy, Educational, Thinking

Aristotle (1962). “Nicomachean Ethics”, MacMillan Publishing Company

Of governments there are said to be only two forms - democracy and oligarchy. For aristocracy is considered to be a kind of oligarchy, as being the rule of a few, and the so-called constitutional government to be really a democracy.

Aristotle

Two, Government, Democracy

Aristotle, Stephen Everson (1996). “Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens”, p.95, Cambridge University Press

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.

Aristotle

Inspirational, Teenage, Philosophical

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

Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring

The ideal man takes joy in doing favors for others.

Aristotle

Men, Joy, Favors

A government which is composed of the middle class more nearly approximates to democracy than to oligarchy, and is the safest of the imperfect forms of government.

Aristotle

Class, Government, Democracy

Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.324, Simon and Schuster

...happiness is an activity and a complete utilization of virtue, not conditionally but absolutely.

Aristotle

Politics, Virtue, Utilization

Aristotle (1987). “A New Aristotle reader”

The End is included among goods of the soul, and not among external goods.

Aristotle

Soul, Ends, Goods

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

Aristotle

Pleasure, Depraved, Insensible

Now the greatest external good we should assume to be the thing which we offer as a tribute to the gods, and which is most coveted by men of high station, and is the prize awarded for the noblest deeds; and such a thing is honor, for honor is clearly the greatest of external goods.

Aristotle

Men, Honor, Deeds