Aristotle Quotes - Page 37

• 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

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• Between friends there is no need for justice, but people who are just still need the quality of friendship; and indeed friendliness is considered to be justice in the fullest sense.

  Aristotle

  People, Justice, Quality

  Aristotle (2003). “The Aristotle's Ethics: Nicomachean Ethics”, Spark Notes

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• 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

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• 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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• One swallow does not make a spring, nor does one fine day.

  Aristotle

  Spring, Doe, April

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.13, Wordsworth Editions

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• In the first place, then, men should guard against the beginning of change, and in the second place they should not rely upon the political devices of which I have already spoken invented only to deceive the people, for they are proved by experience to be useless.

  Aristotle

  Men, Rely Upon, People

  Aristotle, (2016). “Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens”, p.142, Princeton University Press

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• Melancholy men, of all others, are the most witty.

  Aristotle

  Witty, Men, Melancholy

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• The best tragedies are conflicts between a hero and his destiny.

  Aristotle

  Hero, Destiny, Tragedy

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• Since we think we understand when we know the explanation, and there are four types of explanation (one, what it is to be a thing; one, that if certain things hold it is necessary that this does; another, what initiated the change; and fourth, the aim), all these are proved through the middle term.

  Aristotle

  Science, Thinking, Doe

  Aristotle, (2014). “The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, One-Volume Digital Edition”, p.277, Princeton University Press

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• Some men turn every quality or art into a means of making money; this they conceive to be the end, and to the promotion of the end all things must contribute.

  Aristotle

  Inspirational, Art, Mean

  Aristotle, Hugh Griffith (2009). “Aristotle”, p.216, Collector's Library

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• A young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur in life, but its discussions start from these and are about these; and, further, since he tends to follow his passions, his study will be vain and unprofitable, because the end that is aimed at is not knowledge but action. And it makes no difference whether he is young in years or youthful in character.

  Aristotle

  Passion, Learning, Character

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1730, Princeton University Press

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• Pleasure causes us to do base actions and pain causes us to abstain from doing noble actions.

  Aristotle

  Pain, Noble, Causes

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.36, Wordsworth Editions

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• Between friends there is no need of justice.

  Aristotle

  Friendship, Real, Justice

  Aristotle (1811). “Works”, p.508

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• The body is at its best between the ages of thirty and thirty-five.

  Aristotle

  Age, Body, Thirty

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• 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

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• Just as at the Olympic games it is not the handsomest or strongest men who are crowned with victory but the successful competitors, so in life it is those who act rightly who carry off all the prizes and rewards.

  Aristotle

  Success, Men, Games

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• The same thing may have all the kinds of causes, e.g. the moving cause of a house is the art or the builder, the final cause is the function it fulfils, the matter is earth and stones, and the form is the definitory formula.

  Aristotle

  Art, Moving, Science

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1574, Princeton University Press

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• The final cause, then, produces motion through being loved.

  Aristotle

  Love, Finals, Causes

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• A poet's object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.

  Aristotle

  Truth, History, Giving

  Aristotle, Longinus, Demetrius (of Phaleron) (1932). “The poetics”

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• Moral qualities are so constituted as to be destroyed by excess and by deficiency . . .

  Aristotle

  Quality, Excess, Moral

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.35, Wordsworth Editions

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• It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible.

  Aristotle

  Nature, Truth, Mind

  "Time to rise to the challenge of social impact measurement" by Jeremy Nicholls, www.theguardian.com. May 10, 2013.

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• For imagining lies within our power whenever we wish . . . but in forming opinons we are not free . . .

  Aristotle

  Lying, Wish

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• Excellence or virtue in a man will be the disposition which renders him a good man and also which will cause him to perform his function well.

  Aristotle

  Men, Good Man, Excellence

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.39, Wordsworth Editions

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• Some vices miss what is right because they are deficient, others because they are excessive, in feelings or in actions, while virtue finds and chooses the mean.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Missing, Feelings

  Aristotle, Terence Irwin, Gail Fine (1995). “Aristotle: Selections”, p.373, Hackett Publishing

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• 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

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