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Home » Aristotle Quotes About Education, Love, Virtue, Politics and Power

Aristotle Quotes About Education, Love, Virtue, Politics and Power

Aristotle Quotes About Education, Love, Virtue, Politics and Power

“ At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst. ” – Aristotle

“ The family is the association established by nature for the supply of men’s everyday wants. ” – Aristotle

“ Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers. ” – Aristotle

“ The more you know, the more you know you don’t know. ” – Aristotle

“ The greatest of all pleasures is the pleasure of learning. ” – Aristotle

“ Fortune favours the bold. ” – Aristotle

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“ Happiness is a quality of the soul…not a function of one’s material circumstances. ” – Aristotle

“ Greatness of spirit is accompanied by simplicity and sincerity. ” – Aristotle

“ The difference between a learned man and an ignorant one is the same as that between a living man and a corpse. ” – Aristotle

“ A tragedy is that moment where the hero comes face to face with his true identity. ” – Aristotle

“ The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law. ” – Aristotle

“ The Eyes are the organs of temptation, and the Ears are the organs of instruction. ” – Aristotle

“ Those who cannot bravely face danger are the slaves of their attackers. ” – Aristotle

“ Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach. ” – Aristotle

“ To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man. ” – Aristotle

“ Being a father is the most rewarding thing a man whose career has plateaued can do. ” – Aristotle

“ One may go wrong in many different ways, but right only in one, which is why it is easy to fail and difficult to succeed. ” – Aristotle

“ What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do. ” – Aristotle

“ Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. ” – Aristotle

“ The most important relationship we can all have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. To know yourself, you must spend time with yourself, you must not be afraid to be alone. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. ” – Aristotle

“ Democracy appears to be safer and less liable to revolution than oligarchy. For in oligarchies there is the double danger of the oligarchs falling out among themselves and also with the people; but in democracies there is only the danger of a quarrel with the oligarchs. No dissension worth mentioning arises among the people themselves. And we may further remark that a government which is composed of the middle class more nearly approximates to democracy than to oligarchy, and is the safest of the imperfect forms of government. ” – Aristotle

“ To Unlearn is as hard as to Learn ” – Aristotle

“ The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. ” – Aristotle

“ The young are heated by Nature as drunken men by wine. ” – Aristotle

“ Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one. ” – Aristotle

“ The tyrant, who in order to hold his power, suppresses every superiority, does away with good men, forbids education and light, controls every movement of the citizens and, keeping them under a perpetual servitude, wants them to grow accustomed to baseness and cowardice, has his spies everywhere to listen to what is said in the meetings, and spreads dissension and calumny among the citizens and impoverishes them, is obliged to make war in order to keep his subjects occupied and impose on them permanent need of a chief. ” – Aristotle

“ If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out. ” – Aristotle

“ Teenagers these days are out of control. They eat like pigs, they are disrespectful of adults, they interrupt and contradict their parents, and they terrorize their teachers. ” – Aristotle

“ Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. ” – Aristotle

“ Only an armed people can be truly free. Only an unarmed people can ever be enslaved. ” – Aristotle

“ I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self. ” – Aristotle

“ Obstinate people can be divided into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish. ” – Aristotle

“ Friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons. ” – Aristotle

“ Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled ; and by doing brave acts, we become brave. ” – Aristotle

“ You can never learn anything that you did not already know ” – Aristotle

“ Courage is the mother of all virtues because without it, you cannot consistently perform the others. ” – Aristotle

“ The energy of the mind is the essence of life. ” – Aristotle

“ Saying the words that come from knowledge is no sign of having it. ” – Aristotle

“ Health is a matter of choice, not a mystery of chance ” – Aristotle

“ Tyrants preserve themselves by sowing fear and mistrust among the citizens by means of spies, by distracting them with foreign wars, by eliminating men of spirit who might lead a revolution, by humbling the people, and making them incapable of decisive action. ” – Aristotle

“ What we expect, that we find. ” – Aristotle

“ Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved. ” – Aristotle

“ Our problem is not that we aim too high and miss, but that we aim too low and hit. ” – Aristotle

“ Perception starts with the eye. ” – Aristotle

“ The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances. ” – Aristotle

“ First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. ” – Aristotle

“ The best things are placed between extremes. ” – Aristotle

“ Wise people have an inward sense of what is beautiful, and the highest wisdom is to trust this intuition and be guided by it. ” – Aristotle

“ Female cats are very Lascivious, and make advances to the male. ” – Aristotle

“ Speech is the representation of the mind, and writing is the representation of speech. ” – Aristotle

“ Think as the wise men think, but talk like the simple people do. ” – Aristotle

“ Life is only meaningful when we are striving for a goal . ” – Aristotle

“ The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want. ” – Aristotle

“ Find the good. Seek the Unity. Ignore the divisions among us. ” – Aristotle

“ Education and morals will be found almost the whole that goes to make a good man. ” – Aristotle

“ Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. ” – Aristotle

“ It is our choice of good or evil that determines our character, not our opinion about good or evil. ” – Aristotle

“ The hardest victory is the victory over self. ” – Aristotle

“ Before you heal the body you must first heal the mind ” – Aristotle

“ You are what you do repeatedly. ” – Aristotle

“ The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. ” – Aristotle

“ You’ll understand what life is if you think about the act of dying. When I die, how will I be different from the way I am right now? In the first moments after death, my body will be scarcely different in physical terms than it was in the last seconds of life, but I will no longer move, no longer sense, nor speak, nor feel, nor care. It’s these things that are life. At that moment, the psyche takes flight in the last breath. ” – Aristotle

“ All friendly feelings toward others come from the friendly feelings a person has for himself. ” – Aristotle

“ Through discipline comes freedom. ” – Aristotle

“ A right election can only be made by those who have knowledge. ” – Aristotle

“ We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends behave to us ” – Aristotle

“ Some persons hold that, while it is proper for the lawgiver to encourage and exhort men to virtue on moral grounds, in the expectation that those who have had a virtuous moral upbringing will respond, yet he is bound to impose chastisement and penalties on the disobedient and ill-conditioned, and to banish the incorrigible out of the state altogether. For (they argue) although the virtuous man, who guides his life by moral ideals, will be obedient to reason, the base, whose desires are fixed on pleasure, must be chastised by pain, like a beast of burden. ” – Aristotle

“ We can’t learn without pain. ” – Aristotle

“ All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established. ” – Aristotle

“ There are no experienced young people. Time makes experience. ” – Aristotle

“ You are what you repeatedly do ” – Aristotle

“ Authority is no source for Truth. ” – Aristotle

“ Virtue means doing the right thing, in relation to the right person, at the right time, to the right extent, in the right manner, and for the right purpose. Thus, to give money away is quite a simple task, but for the act to be virtuous, the donor must give to the right person, for the right purpose, in the right amount, in the right manner, and at the right time. ” – Aristotle

“ The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his circumstances. ” – Aristotle

“ The worst thing about slavery is that the slaves eventually get to like it. ” – Aristotle

“ happen.. Right time, right person, and for ” – Aristotle

“ If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development ” – Aristotle

“ You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor. ” – Aristotle

“ The fool tells me his reason; the wise man persuades me with my own. ” – Aristotle

“ Courage is the first virtue that makes all other virtues possible. ” – Aristotle

“ The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement. ” – Aristotle

“ Patience s bitter, but it’s fruit is sweet. ” – Aristotle

“ We are what we repeatedly do… excellence, therefore, isn’t just an act, but a habit and life isn’t just a series of events, but an ongoing process of self-definition. ” – Aristotle

“ Art is a higher type of knowledge than experience. ” – Aristotle

“ Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also to those who need it so much. ” – Aristotle

“ The high-minded man does not bear grudges, for it is not the mark of a great soul to remember injuries, but to forget them. ” – Aristotle

“ Let us first understand the facts and then we may seek the cause. ” – Aristotle

“ Happiness is a state of activity. ” – Aristotle

“ They – Young People have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things – and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning – all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything – they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else. ” – Aristotle

“ A democracy exists whenever those who are free and are not well-off, being in the majority, are in sovereign control of government, an oligarchy when control lies with the rich and better-born, these being few. ” – Aristotle

“ A proper wife should be as obedient as a slave… The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities – a natural defectiveness. ” – Aristotle

“ It is impossible, or not easy, to alter by argument what has long been absorbed by habit ” – Aristotle

“ Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. ” – Aristotle

“ The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper. ” – Aristotle

“ The only way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society. ” – Aristotle

“ Philosophy begins with wonder. ” – Aristotle

“ Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. ” – Aristotle

“ At the intersection where your gifts, talents, and abilities meet a human need; therein you will discover your purpose ” – Aristotle

“ Life cannot be lived, and understood, simultaneously. ” – Aristotle

“ Our feelings towards our friends reflect our feelings towards ourselves. ” – Aristotle

“ When there is no middle class, and the poor greatly exceed in number, troubles arise, and the state soon comes to an end. ” – Aristotle

“ Truth is a remarkable thing. We cannot miss knowing some of it. But we cannot know it entirely. ” – Aristotle

“ A fool contributes nothing worth hearing and takes offense at everything. ” – Aristotle

“ Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. ” – Aristotle

“ 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

“ What you have to learn to do, you learn by doing. ” – Aristotle

“ There is nothing unequal as the equal treatment of unequals. ” – Aristotle

“ The intention makes the crime. ” – Aristotle

“ To love someone is to identify with them. ” – Aristotle

“ Your happiness depends on you alone. ” – Aristotle

“ Hope is a waking dream. ” – Aristotle

“ Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals. ” – Aristotle

“ Humility is a flower which does not grow in everyone’s garden. ” – Aristotle

“ The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either. ” – Aristotle

“ He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. ” – Aristotle

“ The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think. ” – Aristotle

“ Music directly represents the passions of the soul. If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person. ” – Aristotle

“ The society that loses its grip on the past is in danger, for it produces men who know nothing but the present, and who are not aware that life had been, and could be, different from what it is. ” – Aristotle

“ Nature creates nothing without a purpose. ” – Aristotle

“ The whole is more than the sum of its parts. ” – Aristotle

“ A promise made must be a promise kept. ” – Aristotle

“ It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom. ” – Aristotle

“ The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain. ” – Aristotle

“ Women should marry when they are about eighteen years of age, and men at seven and thirty; then they are in the prime of life, and the decline in the powers of both will coincide. ” – Aristotle

“ True happiness comes from gaining insight and growing into your best possible self. Otherwise all you’re having is immediate gratification pleasure, which is fleeting and doesn’t grow you as a person. ” – Aristotle

“ The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor; it is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity of the dissimilar. ” – Aristotle

“ Wonder implies the desire to learn. ” – Aristotle

“ The ultimate end…is not knowledge, but action. To be half right on time may be more important than to obtain the whole truth too late. ” – Aristotle

“ 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

“ Money is a guarantee that we can have what we want in the future ” – Aristotle

“ The best way to avoid envy is to deserve the success you get. ” – Aristotle

“ What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good. ” – Aristotle

“ Friendship is a thing most necessary to life, since without friends no one would choose to live, though possessed of all other advantages. ” – Aristotle

“ It is not sufficient to know what one ought to say, but one must also know how to say it. ” – Aristotle

“ Be a free thinker and don’t accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in. ” – Aristotle

“ Wit is well-bred insolence. ” – Aristotle

“ Well begun is half done. ” – Aristotle

“ No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness. ” – Aristotle

“ Criticism is something we can avoid easily ” – Aristotle

“ It is better for a city to be governed by a good man than by good laws. ” – Aristotle

“ The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes. ” – Aristotle

“ A goal gets us motivated,while a good habit keeps us stay motivated. ” – Aristotle

“ Worms are the intestines of the earth. ” – Aristotle

“ If something’s bound to happen, it will ” – Aristotle

“ We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference. ” – Aristotle

“ He who has overcome his fears will truly be free. ” – Aristotle

“ He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader. ” – Aristotle

“ For both excessive and insufficient exercise destroy one’s strength, and both eating and drinking too much or too little destroy health, whereas the right quantity produces, increases and preserves it. So it is the same with temperance, courage and the other virtues. This much then, is clear: in all our conduct it is the mean that is to be commended. ” – Aristotle

“ Character is revealed through action. ” – Aristotle

“ Love well, be loved and do something of value. ” – Aristotle

“ Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact. ” – Aristotle

“ Laughter is a bodily exercise, precious to Health ” – Aristotle

“ Sophocles said he drew men as they ought to be, and Euripides as they were. ” – Aristotle

“ We are better able to study our neighbours than ourselves, and their actions than our own. ” – Aristotle

“ The proof that you know something is that you are able to teach it ” – Aristotle

“ Doubt is the beginning of wisdom ” – Aristotle

“ Plato is my friend, but truth is a better friend. ” – Aristotle

“ Character is determined by choice, not opinion. ” – Aristotle

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

“ For what one has to learn to do, we learn by doing. ” – Aristotle

“ Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny. ” – Aristotle

“ He overcomes a stout enemy who overcomes his own anger. ” – Aristotle

“ 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

“ Of the tyrant, spies and informers are the principal instruments. War is his favorite occupation, for the sake of engrossing the attention of the people, and making himself necessary to them as their leader. ” – Aristotle

“ Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. ” – Aristotle

“ A friend of everyone is a friend of no one ” – Aristotle

“ The quality of life is determined by its activities. ” – Aristotle

“ Every man should be responsible to others, nor should any one be allowed to do just as he pleases; for where absolute freedom is allowed, there is nothing to restrain the evil which is inherent in every man. ” – Aristotle

“ It is a part of probability that many improbable things will happen. ” – Aristotle

“ We should aim rather at leveling down our desires than leveling up our means. ” – Aristotle

“ Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. ” – Aristotle

“ He who cannot see the truth for himself, nor, hearing it from others, store it away in his mind, that man is utterly worthless. ” – Aristotle

“ The intelligence consists not only in the knowledge but also in the skill to apply the knowledge into practice. ” – Aristotle

“ It would be wrong to put friendship before the truth. ” – Aristotle

“ Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms. ” – Aristotle