 |
(no category)
|
|
The Good of man is the active exercise of his souls faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue, or if there be several human excellences or virtues, in conformity with the best and most perfect among them.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
When several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing, the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
The argument of Alcidamas: Everyone honours the wise. Thus the Parians have honoured Archilochus, in spite of his bitter tongue; the Chians Homer, though he was not their countryman; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, though she was a woman; the Lacedaemonians actually made Chilon a member of their senate, though they are the least literary of men; the inhabitants of Lampsacus gave public burial to Anaxagoras, though he was an alien, and honour him even to this day.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
One thing alone not even God can do,To make undone whatever hath been done.
-Aristotle
|
|
Action(s)
|
|
|
We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
Well begun is half done.
-Aristotle
|
|
Anger
|
|
|
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.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
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; this is not easy.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
Anger is always concerned with individuals, ... whereas hatred is directed also against classes: we all hate any thief and any informer. Moreover, anger can be cured by time; but hatred cannot. The one aims at giving pain to its object, the other at doing him harm; the angry man wants his victim to feel; the hater does not mind whether they feel or not.
-Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric, sect. 6, ch. 2.4.
|
|
Animals
|
|
|
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
-Aristotle
|
|
Authors & Writing
|
|
|
To write well, express yourself like common people, but think like a wise man. Or, think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.
-Aristotle
|
|
Beauty
|
|
|
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
Beauty depends on size as well as symmetry. No very small animal can be beautiful, for looking at it takes so small a portion of time that the impression of it will be confused. Nor can any very large one, for a whole view of it cannot be had at once, and so there will be no unity and completeness.
-Aristotle
|
|
Bravery
|
|
|
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
It is easy to fly into a passion... anybody can do that, but to be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right time and in the right way that is not easy.
-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
|
|
Character
|
|
|
Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.
-Aristotle
|
|
|
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
-Aristotle
|
|
Children
|
|
|
This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.
-Aristotle, (attributed)
|
|
City Life, Cities
|
|
|
A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
-Aristotle
|
|
Class
|
|
|
The most perfect political community must be amongst those who are in the middle rank, and those states are best instituted wherein these are a larger and more respectable part, if possible, than both the other; or, if that cannot be, at least than either of them separate.
-Aristotle
|
Books by and about Aristotle