Selected Quotes By Aristotle
"The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law."
Aristotle, Society, Government
"A friend is a second self."
Aristotle, Friendship
"To lead an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd."
Aristotle, Management
"We make war that we may live in peace."
Aristotle, Anger and Fighting
"Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion."
Aristotle, Management
"Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"The secret to humor is surprise."
Aristotle, Happiness
"Through discipline comes freedom."
Aristotle, Freedom
"All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established."
Aristotle, Goals
"Happiness is a state of activity."
Aristotle, Happiness
"Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Misfortune shows those who are not really friends."
Aristotle, Friendship
"Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation."
Aristotle, Work
"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind."
Aristotle, Work
"Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Nature does nothing uselessly."
Aristotle, Science
"All men by nature desire to know."
Aristotle, Life
"Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Wit is educated insolence."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods."
Aristotle, Friendship, Wealth
"He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader."
Aristotle, Management
"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."
Aristotle, Problems
"The energy of the mind is the essence of life."
Aristotle, Life, Science
"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire."
Aristotle, Life
"It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen."
Aristotle, Society
"The more you know, the more you know you don't know."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"I have gained this by philosophy; I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom, Government
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
Aristotle, Science
"Learning is not child's play; we cannot learn without pain."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god."
Aristotle, Society
"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."
Aristotle, Happiness
"To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think."
Aristotle, Truth
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."
Aristotle, Happiness, Work
"The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend."
Aristotle, Anger and Fighting, Friendship
"It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace."
Aristotle, Anger and Fighting, Success
"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."
Aristotle, Art
"Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime."
Aristotle, Wealth
"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self."
Aristotle, Courage
"Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god."
Aristotle, Happiness
"The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"To perceive is to suffer."
Aristotle, Happiness
"He who has overcome his fears will truly be free."
Aristotle, Freedom
"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."
Aristotle, Patience
"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."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom, Society
"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."
Aristotle, Happiness, Life
"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit."
Aristotle, Friendship
"A friend to all is a friend to none."
Aristotle, Friendship
"Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to 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."
Aristotle, Anger and Fighting, Power
"Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Happiness depends upon ourselves."
Aristotle, Happiness
"No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Hope is a waking dream."
Aristotle, Hope
"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies."
Aristotle, Friendship
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."