Famous Quotes

Quotes by Aristotle

• Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
• Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
• Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
• The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
• The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
• The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
• 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.
• The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
• The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
• 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.
• The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
• The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
• The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.
• The secret to humor is surprise.
• The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.
• The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
• The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
• 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.
• There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
• Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
• 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.
• 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.
• Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
• 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.
• To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.
• We make war that we may live in peace.
• We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.
• 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.
• What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
• What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
• Whether if soul did not exist time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked for if there cannot be someone to count there cannot be anything that can be counted, so that evidently there cannot be number for number is either what has been, or what can be, counted.
• Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
• Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.