Aristotle Quotes - Page 50

• 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

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• The state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.

  Aristotle

  Government, Community, Political

  Aristotle (2010). “Constitution of Athens and Related Texts”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

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• If what was said in the Ethics is true, that the happy life is the life according to virtue lived without impediment, and that virtue is a mean, then the life which is in a mean, and in a mean attainable by every one, must be the best. And the same principles of virtue and vice are characteristic of cities and of constitutions; for the constitution is in a figure the life of the city.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Happy Life, Cities

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.311, Simon and Schuster

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• All three states - the Lacedaemonian, the Cretan, and the Carthaginian - nearly resemble one another, and are very different from any others. Many of the Carthaginian institutions are excellent. The superiority of their constitution is proved by the fact that the common people remains loyal to the constitution; the Carthaginians have never had any rebellion worth speaking of, and have never been under the rule of a tyrant.

  Aristotle

  Tyrants, People, Different

  Aristotle, (2016). “Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens”, p.53, Princeton University Press

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• We maintain, and have said in the Ethics, if the arguments there adduced are of any value, that happiness is the realization and perfect exercise of virtue, and this not conditional, but absolute. And I used the term 'conditional' to express that which is indispensable, and 'absolute' to express that which is good in itself.

  Aristotle

  Exercise, Perfect, Realization

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.380, Simon and Schuster

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• In most constitutional states the citizens rule and are ruled by turns, for the idea of a constitutional state implies that the natures of the citizens are equal, and do not differ at all.

  Aristotle

  Government, Ideas, Citizens

  Aristotle, Stephen Everson (1996). “Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens”, p.27, Cambridge University Press

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• 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

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• That the equalization of property exercises an influence on political society was clearly understood even by some of the old legislators. Laws were made by Solon and others prohibiting an individual from possessing as much land as he pleased.

  Aristotle

  Exercise, Law, Land

  Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.56, Aristotle

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• By 'life,' we mean a thing that can nourish itself and grow and decay.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Decay, Grows

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• 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

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• Should a man live underground, and there converse with the works of art and mechanism, and should afterwards be brought up into the open day, and see the several glories of the heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the work of such a Being as we define God to be.

  Aristotle

  God, Art, Men

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• Whether we call it sacrifice, or poetry, or adventure, it is always the same voice that calls.

  Aristotle

  Adventure, Sacrifice, Voice

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• We have no evidence as yet about mind or the power to think; it seems to be a widely different kind of soul, differing as what is eternal from what is perishable; it alone is capable of existence in isolation from all other psychic powers.

  Aristotle

  Thinking, Psychics, Soul

  Aristotle, Aeterna Press (2015). “On the Soul”, p.33, Aeterna Press

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• The right constitutions, three in number- kingship, aristocracy, and polity- and the deviations from these, likewise three in number - tyranny from kingship, oligarchy from aristocracy, democracy from polity.

  Aristotle

  Numbers, Political, Democracy

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• In seeking for justice men seek for the mean or neutral, for the law is the mean. Again, customary laws have more weight, and relate to more important matters, than written laws, and a man may be a safer ruler than the written law, but not safer than the customary law.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Men, Law

  Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.116, Aristotle

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• It would then be most admirably adapted to the purposes of justice, if laws properly enacted were, as far as circumstances admitted, of themselves to mark out all cases, and to abandon as few as possible to the discretion of the judge.

  Aristotle

  Law, Justice, Judging

  Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes (1823). “Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric”, p.4

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• Rhetoric is the counterpart of logic; since both are conversant with subjects of such a nature as it is the business of all to have a certain knowledge of, and which belong to no distinct science. Wherefore all men in some way participate of both; since all, to a certain extent, attempt, as well to sift, as to maintain an argument; as well to defend themselves, as to impeach.

  Aristotle

  Men, Way, Logic

  Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes (1823). “Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric”, p.1

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• Now the soul of man is divided into two parts, one of which has a rational principle in itself, and the other, not having a rational principle in itself, is able to obey such a principle. And we call a man in any way good because he has the virtues of these two parts.

  Aristotle

  Men, Two, Soul

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

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• For nature by the same cause, provided it remain in the same condition, always produces the same effect, so that either coming-to-be or passing-away will always result.

  Aristotle

  Nature, Science, Passing Away

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 1: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.551, Princeton University Press

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• We ought to be able to persuade on opposite sides of a question; as also we ought in the case of arguing by syllogism: not that we should practice both, for it is not right to persuade to what is bad; but in order that the bearing of the case may not escape us, and that when another makes an unfair use of these reasonings, we may be able to solve them.

  Aristotle

  Order, Opposites, Practice

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• The things best to know are first principles and causes, but these things are perhaps the most difficult for men to grasp, for they are farthest removed from the senses.

  Aristotle

  Ignorance, Men, Principles

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• There are still two forms besides democracy and oligarchy; one of them is universally recognized and included among the four principal forms of government, which are said to be (1) monarchy, (2) oligarchy, (3) democracy, and (4) the so-called aristocracy or government of the best. But there is also a fifth, which retains the generic name of polity or constitutional government.

  Aristotle

  Names, Two, Generic Name

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.307, Simon and Schuster

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• That education should be regulated by law and should be an affair of state is not to be denied, but what should be the character of this public education, and how young persons should be educated, are questions which remain to be considered. As things are, there is disagreement about the subjects. For mankind are by no means agreed about the things to be taught, whether we look to virtue or the best life. Neither is it clear whether education is more concerned with intellectual or with moral virtue.

  Aristotle

  Education, Character, Mean

  Aristotle (2016). “Pocket Aristotle”, p.320, Simon and Schuster

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• Now, the causes being four, it is the business of the student of nature to know about them all, and if he refers his problems back to all of them, he will assign the "why" in the way proper to his science-the matter, the form, the mover, that for the sake of which.

  Aristotle

  Science, Research, Four

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 1: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.338, Princeton University Press

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• Not to know of what things one should demand demonstration, and of what one should not, argues want of education.

  Aristotle

  Demand, Want, Arguing

  Aristotle (2012). “The Metaphysics”, p.48, Roger Bishop Jones

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