Quotes By Aristotle

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.

To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.

The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.

It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.

Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

Wit is educated insolence.

The law is reason, free from passion.

Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.