Quotes by
Aristotle |
Philosopher and scientist, one of the greatest intellectual figures of Western history. His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and government – and constitute the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. Even after the intellectual revolutions of the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, Aristotelian concepts remained embedded in Western thinking. | 60 quotes | 8,989 visits |
Quotations
| • | 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. 19 |
| • | Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be. 16 |
| • | Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular. 11 |
| • | Any one can get angry — that is easy — or give or spend money; but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for every one, nor is it easy. 10 |
| • | Law is order, and good law is good order. 10 |
| • | Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. 10 |
| • | Misfortune shows those who are not really friends. 8 |
| • | Oligarchs and tyrants mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms. 8 |
| • | The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. 8 |
| • | Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all. 8 |
| • | The appropriate age for marriage is around eighteen for girls and thirty-seven for men. 7 |
| • | Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities. 7 |
| • | Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact. 6 |
| • | The law is reason unaffected by desire. 6 |
| • | 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. 6 |
| • | All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal. 6 |
| • | That judges of important causes should hold office for life is a disputable thing, for the mind grows old as well as the body. 6 |
| • | It is not easy to determine the nature of music, or why any one should have a knowledge of it. 5 |
| • | Poetry is for an intelligent man or a madman. 5 |
| • | I have gained this by philosophy: I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law. 5 |
| • | But that the unequal should be given to equals, and the unlike to those who are like, is contrary to nature, and nothing which is contrary to nature is good. 3 |
| • | Thus every action must be due to one or other of seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reasoning, anger, or appetite. 3 |
| • | Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully. 3 |
| • | For the purposes of poetry a convincing impossibility is preferable to an unconvincing possibility. 3 |
| • | For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. 3 |
Ancient Greek
| • | Friendship is one soul living in two bodies. Φιλία εστί μία ψυχή εν δυσί σώμασιν ενοικουμένη. 26 |
| • | Don’t ask who is now, but who he has always been. Μηδέ ποίος τις νυν, αλλά ποίος τις ην αεί. 23 |
| • | The human life is governed by nature and laws. Άπας ό βίος των ανθρώπων φύσει και νόμοις διοικείται. 16 |
| • | Nature does nothing without purpose or in vain. Η φύσις μηδέν μήτε ατελές ποιεί μήτε μάτην. 14 |
| • | Before a crowd, the ignorant are more persuasive than the educated. Του πιθανωτέρους είναι τους απαιδεύτους των πεπαιδευμένων εν τοις όχλοις. 13 |
| • | Habit is second nature. Έξις δευτέρα φύσις. 12 |
| • | The now is a sort of a middle thing. Το νυν εστι μεσότης τις. 10 |
| • | Each art must use its tools, each body its soul. Δει γαρ την μεν τέχνην χρήσθαι τοις οργάνοις, την δε ψυχήν τω σώματι. 9 |
| • | Poverty needs many things, but greed everything. Η πενία πολλών εστιν ενδεής, η δ’ απληστία πάντων. 9 |
| • | Man is by nature a city animal. Ο άνθρωπος φύσει πολιτικόν ζώον. (or political animal) 8 |
| • | Plants exist for the sake of animals and animals for the sake of men. Τα φυτά των ζώων ένεκέν εστι και τα ζώα των ανθρώπων χάριν. 8 |
| • | Women are more envious and more querulous than men. Γυνή ανδρός φθονερώτερον και μεμψιμοιρότερον. 8 |
| • | Wickedness and injustice are intentional. Εν τη προαιρέσει η μοχθηρία και το αδικείν. 8 |
| • | No one likes one whom he fears. Ουδείς γαρ ον φοβείται φιλεί. 8 |
| • | In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. Εν πάσι γαρ τοις φυσικοίς ενεστί τι θαυμαστόν. 8 |
| • | War is a school for virtue. Πόλεμος γαρ σχολείον αρετής εστί. 7 |
| • | Only the cunning needs excuses. Προφάσεως δείται μόνον η πονηρία. 7 |
| • | Beauty is better than any recommendation letter. Το κάλλος παντός επιστολίου συστατικώτερον. 7 |
| • | Whoever knows about tragedy, knows about epics too. Όστις περί τραγωδίας οίδε, οίδε και περί επών. 7 |
| • | That which has become habitual becomes as it were natural. Το ειθισμένον ώσπερ πεφυκός ήδη γίγνεται. 7 |
| • | The hand is the instrument of instruments. Η χειρ όργανόν εστιν οργάνων. 7 |
| • | Nature does not make leaps. Η φύσις ουδέν ποιεί άλματα. 6 |
| • | There is no difference between not having laws and not following the laws. Ουδέν διαφέρει ή μη κείσθαι ή μη χρήσθαι τους νόμους. 6 |
| • | Those who cannot face danger like men become the slaves of any invader. Οι μη δυνάμενοι κινδυνεύειν ανδρείως δούλοι των επιόντων εισίν. 6 |
| • | When asked what is hope, he said 'the dream of a waking man'. Ερωτηθείς τι έστιν ελπίς, « Εγρηγορότος», είπεν, «ενύπνιον. » 5 |
| • | Nothing is without a cause. Άνευ αιτίου ουδέν εστιν. 5 |
| • | The female has the will but not the strength. Το θήλυ έχει το βουλητικόν αλλ' άκυρον. 5 |
| • | What soon grows old? Favor. Τι γηράσκει ταχύ; Χάρις. 5 |
| • | Education needs these three: natural endowment, study, practice. Τριών δει παιδεία: φύσεως, μαθήσεως, ασκήσεως. 5 |
| • | Of moral states to be avoided there are three kinds: malice, incontinence, bestiality. Των περί τα ήθη φευκτών τρία εστίν είδη: κακία, ακρασία, θηριότης. 5 |
| • | Experience created the art but inexperience created the luck. Η μεν εμπειρία τέχνην εποίησεν, η δ’ απειρία τύχην. 4 |
| • | Proverbs are the remnants of old philosophy preserved due to their brevity and smartness. Αι παροιμίαι παλαιάς εισίν φιλοσοφίας εγκαταλείμματα, περισωθέντα διά συντομίαν και δεξιότητα. 4 |
| • | In all things, change is sweet. Μεταβολή δε πάντων γλυκύ. 4 |
| • | All men by nature desire to know. Πάντες άνθρωποι φύσει ορέγονται του ειδέναι. 4 |
| • | The totality is not a mere heap, but the whole is something besides the parts. Πάντων γαρ όσα πλείω μέρη έχει και μη έστιν οίον σωρός το παν. 4 |
