Aristotle Quotes

Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath who made significant contributions to various fields, including philosophy, science, logic, and ethics. He was a student of Plato and a tutor to Alexander the Great. Aristotle's works, such as "Nicomachean Ethics" and "Metaphysics," explored fundamental questions about human nature, morality, and the nature of reality. His systematic approach to knowledge and his influential ideas have had a profound impact on Western philosophy and continue to be studied and debated today.

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

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.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it... -Aristotle

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

A friend to all is a friend to none.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.

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.

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.

The eyes of some persons are large, others small, and others of a moderate size; the last-mentioned are the best. And some eyes are projecting, some deep-set, and some moderate, and those which are deep-set have the most acute vision in all animals; the middle position is a sign of the best disposition.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

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.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make une... -Aristotle

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

Discovering the context

This quote warns against attempting to force unequal things to be equal, as it may lead to an even more problematic form of inequality. It implies that efforts to enforce artificial equality can be counterproductive and detrimental. It reflects on the concept of genuine versus forced equality.

Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to ho... -Aristotle

Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.

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The quote reflects on the innocence and idealism of youth, suggesting that young people are more susceptible to deception or misguided optimism because of their readiness to hope and believe in the possibilities presented to them. It highlights the youthful eagerness and naivety associated with hope.

The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well w... -Aristotle

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

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This quote highlights the value of genuine friendship, suggesting that a true friend sincerely wishes the best for the other person's well-being and happiness. It implies that authentic friendship involves selfless concern for each other's welfare.

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madn... -Aristotle

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

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.

Law is mind without reason.

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are... -Aristotle

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as r... -Aristotle

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

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.

Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to im... -Aristotle

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

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.

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

The secret to humor is surprise.

Discovering the context

This quote suggests that one of the essential elements of humor is the element of surprise. It implies that humor often arises from unexpected or incongruous situations or punchlines.

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

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

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 Quotes

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