Aristotle Quotations

Aristotle

A friend is another I.

Anyone can become angry -- that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way -- that is not easy.

Bad men are full of repentance.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

Dignity does not consist of possessing honors, but in deserving them.

Evil has many shapes, good but one.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

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.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; the hardest victory is the victory over self.

If liberty and equality are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.

It is ridiculous to lay the blame of our wrong actions upon external causes, rather than on the facility with which we ourselves are caught by such causes.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

It seems that ambition makes most people wish to be loved rather than to love others.

The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

The highest human capacity is the capacity for metaphor.

The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.

There was never a genius without a tincture of insanity.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

The search for the truth in one way is hard and in another easy -- for it is evident that no one of us can master it fully, nor miss it wholly. Each one of us adds a little to our knowledge of nature, and from all the facts assembled arises a certain grandeur.

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 worth-while to live.

We can do noble acts without ruling the earth and sea.

We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.

What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.