Aristotle Quotes About Human Nature

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

  Aristotle

  Inspirational, Life, Perseverance

  Attributed to Aristotle in "Optimize Your Life!" by Bernhoff A. Dahl, p. 111, 2005.

• Happiness depends upon ourselves.

  Aristotle

  Inspirational, Happiness, Adventure

  Aristotle (1953). “Ethics: The Nicomachean Ethics”

• To perceive is to suffer.

  Aristotle

  Life, Depression, Education

  Aristotle (2004). “The Works of Aristotle: Aristotle on the parts & progressive motion of animals, the problems, on indivisible lines to which is added Thomas Taylor's The elements of the true arithmetic of infinites”

• 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

  Inspirational, Courage, Yoga

  Aristotle (1953). “Ethics: The Nicomachean Ethics”

• 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

  Men, Evil, Human Nature

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.356, Simon and Schuster

• [Meanness] is more ingrained in man's nature than Prodigality; the mass of mankind are avaricious rather than open-handed.

  Aristotle

  Men, Human Nature, Mass

• All are agreed that the various moral qualities are in a sense bestowed by nature: we are just, and capable of temperance, and brave, and possessed of the other virtues from the moment of our birth. But nevertheless we expect to find that true goodness is something different, and that the virtues in the true sense come to belong to us in another way. For even children and wild animals possess the natural dispositions, yet without Intelligence these may manifestly be harmful.

  Aristotle

  Children, Animal, Brave

  Aristotle, Harris Rackham (1962). “The Nicomachean ethics”

• Again, the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.

  Aristotle

  Principles, Males, Female

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.232, Simon and Schuster

• Both Self-restraint and Unrestraint are a matter of extremes as compared with the character of the mass of mankind; the restrained man shows more and the unrestrained man less steadfastness than most men are capable of.

  Aristotle

  Character, Men, Self

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.188, Wordsworth Editions

• People of superior refinement and of active disposition identify happiness with honour; for this is roughly speaking, the end of political life.

  Aristotle

  People, Political, Human Nature

  Aristotle, Aeterna Press (2015). “Nicomachean Ethics”, p.19, Aeterna Press

• . .we would have to say that hereditary succession is harmful. You may say the king, having sovereign power, will not in that case hand over to his children. But it is hard to believe that: it is a difficult achievement, which expects too much virtue of human nature.

  Aristotle

  Kings, Children, Believe

• Nor need it cause surprise that things disagreeable to the good man should seem pleasant to some men; for mankind is liable to many corruptions and diseases, and the things in question are not really pleasant, but only pleasant to these particular persons, who are in a condition to think them so.

  Aristotle

  Men, Thinking, Good Man

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.271, Wordsworth Editions

• Those who merely possess the goods of fortune may be haughty and insolent; . . . they try to imitate the great-souled man without being really like him, and only copy him in what they can, reproducing his contempt for others but not his virtuous conduct. For the great-souled man is justified in despising other people - his estimates are correct; but most proud men have no good ground for their pride.

  Aristotle

  Pride, Men, People

• Also our fellow competitors, who are indeed the people just mentioned - we do not compete with men who lived a hundred centuries ago, or those yet not born, or the dead, or those who dwell near the Pillars of Hercules, or those whom, in our opinion or that of others, we take to be far below us or far above us. So too we compete with those who follow the same ends as ourselves; we compete with our rivals in sport or in love, and generally with those who are after the same things; and it is therefore these whom we are bound to envy beyond all others. Hence the saying.

  Aristotle

  Sports, Men, People

• The avarice of mankind is insatiable; at one time two obols was pay enough; but now, when this sum has become customary, men always want more and more without end.

  Aristotle

  Men, Two, Want

  Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.58, Aristotle

• Man, as an originator of action, is a union of desire and intellect.

  Aristotle

  Men, Desire, Unions

  Aristotle (1934). “The Nicomachean ethics”

• Although it may be difficult in theory to know what is just and equal, the practical difficulty of inducing those to forbear who can, if they like, encroach, is far greater, for the weaker are always asking for equality and justice, but the stronger care for none of these things.

  Aristotle

  Justice, Stronger, Asking

  Aristotle (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)”, p.3104, Delphi Classics

• Most men appear to think that the art of despotic government is statesmanship, and what men affirm to be unjust and inexpedient in their own case they are not ashamed of practicing towards others; they demand just rule for themselves, but where other men are concerned they care nothing about it. Such behavior is irrational; unless the one party is, and the other is not, born to serve, in which case men have a right to command, not indeed all their fellows, but only those who are intended to be subjects; just as we ought not to hunt mankind, whether for food or sacrifice . .

  Aristotle

  Art, Sacrifice, Men

• As the pleasures of the body are the ones which we most often meet with, and as all men are capable of these, these have usurped the family title; and some men think these are the only pleasures that exist, because they are the only ones which they know.

  Aristotle

  Men, Thinking, Titles

  Aristotle (1934). “The Nicomachean ethics”

• Whereas happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it, the various qualities of men are clearly the reason why there are various kinds of states and many forms of government; for different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Men, Practice

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.373, Simon and Schuster

• All men, or most men, wish what is noble but choose what is profitable; and while it is noble to render a service not with an eye to receiving one in return, it is profitable to receive one. One ought therefore, if one can, to return the equivalent of services received, and to do so willingly; for one ought not to make a man one's friend if one is unwilling to return his favors.

  Aristotle

  Eye, Men, Wish

• No one chooses what does not rest with himself, but only what he thinks can be attained by his own act.

  Aristotle

  Thinking, Doe, Human Nature

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.57, Wordsworth Editions

• In the human species at all events there is a great diversity of pleasures. The same things delight some men and annoy others, and things painful and disgusting to some are pleasant and attractive to others.

  Aristotle

  Men, Diversity, Events

  Aristotle (1934). “The Nicomachean ethics”

• Irrational passions would seem to be as much a part of human nature as is reason.

  Aristotle

  Passion, Human Nature, Reason

  Aristotle (1869). “The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle”, p.65

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