Aristotle Quotes About War

• We make war that we may live in peace.

  Aristotle

  Strength, Veterans Day, Peace

  Nicomachean Ethics bk. 10, 1177b See Vegetius 1

• 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

  War, Men, Light

• It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.

  Aristotle

  Peace, Nature, War

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

  Aristotle

  Peace, Giving Up, War

• It is more difficult to organize a peace than to win a war; but the fruits of victory will be lost if the peace is not organized.

  Aristotle

  Peace, War, Winning

• And so long as they were at war, their power was preserved, but when they had attained empire they fell, for of the arts of peace they knew nothing, and had never engaged in any employment higher than war.

  Aristotle

  Art, War, Long

  Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.68, Aristotle

• When you are lonely, when you feel yourself an alien in the world, play Chess. This will raise your spirits and be your counselor in war

  Aristotle

  Lonely, War, Play

• 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

  War, Mean, Men

• The goal of war is peace, of business, leisure

  Aristotle

  Business, War, Goal

• 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

  War, Tyrants, People

• Men must be able to engage in business and go to war, but leisure and peace are better; they must do what is necessary and indeed what is useful, but what is honorable is better. On such principles children and persons of every age which requires education should be trained.

  Aristotle

  Education, Children, War

  Aristotle (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)”, p.3137, Delphi Classics

• The bad man is continually at war with, and in opposition to, himself.

  Aristotle

  War, Men, Bad Man

  Aristotle (1811). “Works”, p.99

• Happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.

  Aristotle

  War, May, Leisure

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1861, Princeton University Press

• Neither should men study war with a view to the enslavement of those who do not deserve to be enslaved; but first of all they should provide against their own enslavement, and in the second place obtain empire for the good of the governed, and not for the sake of exercising a general despotism, and in the third place they should seek to be masters only over those who deserve to be slaves.

  Aristotle

  War, Exercise, Men

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.383, Simon and Schuster

• Of actions some aim at what is necessary and useful, and some at what is honorable. And the preference given to one or the other class of actions must necessarily be like the preference given to one or other part of the soul and its actions over the other; there must be war for the sake of peace, business for the sake of leisure, things useful and necessary for the sake of things honorable.

  Aristotle

  War, Class, Soul

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.2115, Princeton University Press

• Peace is more difficult than war.

  Aristotle

  War, Difficult

• And this activity alone would seem to be loved for its own sake; for nothing arises from it apart from the contemplating, while from practical activities we gain more or less apart from the action. And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.

  Aristotle

  War, Philosophy, May

  Aristotle, Aeterna Press (2015). “Nicomachean Ethics”, p.209, Aeterna Press

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