Thoughts by Aristotle Quotes in English

Since the branch of philosophy on which we are at present engaged differs from the others in not being a subject of merely intellectual interest - I mean we are not concerned to know what goodness essentially is, but how we are to become good men, for this alone gives the study its practical value - we must apply our minds to the solution of the problems of conduct.

The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.

When states are democratically governed according to law, there are no demagogues, and the best citizens are securely in the saddle; but where the laws are not sovereign, there you find demagogues. The people become a monarch... such people, in its role as a monarch, not being controlled by law, aims at sole power and becomes like a master.

A beginning is that which does not itself follow anything by causal necessity, but after which something naturally is or comes to be. An end, on the contrary, is that which itself naturally follows some other thing, either by necessity, or as a rule, but has nothing following it. A middle is that which follows something as some other thing follows it. A well constructed plot, therefore, must neither begin nor end at haphazard, but conform to these principles.

Those who assert that the mathematical sciences say nothing of the beautiful or the good are in error. For these sciences say and prove a great deal about them; if they do not expressly mention them, but prove attributes which are their results or definitions, it is not true that they tell us nothing about them. The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree.

We must not listen to those who advise us 'being men to think human thoughts, and being mortal to think mortal thoughts' but must put on immortality as much as possible and strain every nerve to live according to that best part of us, which, being small in bulk, yet much more in its power and honour surpasses all else.

The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of all things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed.

There is an ideal of excellence for any particular craft or occupation; similarly there must be an excellent that we can achieve as human beings. That is, we can live our lives as a whole in such a way that they can be judged not just as excellent in this respect or in that occupation, but as excellent, period. Only when we develop our truly human capacities sufficiently to achieve this human excellent will we have lives blessed with happiness.

Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

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The best man, then, must legislate, and laws must be passed, but these laws will have no authority when they miss the mark, though in all other cases retaining their authority. But when the law cannot determine a point at all, or not well, should the one best man or should all decide? According to our present practice assemblies meet, sit in judgment, deliberate, and decide, and their judgments an relate to individual cases. Now any member of the assembly, taken separately, is certainly inferior to the wise man. But the state is made up of many individuals. And as a feast to which all the guests contribute is better than a banquet furnished by a single man, so a multitude is a better judge of many things than any individual.

We make war that we may live in peace.

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Nature abhors a vacuum.

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The gods too are fond of a joke.

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Evil brings men together.

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Happiness is activity.

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Man is by nature a political animal.

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Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.

Man is a political animal. A man who lives alone is either a Beast or a God.

We become brave by doing brave acts.

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He who hath many friends hath none.

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They who love in excess also hate in excess.

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PLOT is CHARACTER revealed by ACTION.

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For the activity of the mind is life.

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Nothing is what rocks dream about.

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Hope is the dream of a waking man.

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We Can't learn without pain.

The actuality of thought is life.

He who has many friends has no friends.

The blood of a goat will shatter a diamond.

Education is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.

The soul never thinks without a mental picture.

Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.

The guest will judge better of a feast than the cook.

Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man.

Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

Learning is not child's play; we cannot learn without pain.

All knowledge should be subject to examination and reason.

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.

It is likely that unlikely things should happen.

Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.

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

Friendship is essentially a partnership.

Choice, not chance, determines your destiny.

No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.

Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy.

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

Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.

It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.

By myth I mean the arrangement of the incidents.

The least deviation from truth will be multiplied later.

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness…

The quality of life is determined by its activities.

The beginning seems to be more than half of the whole.

A man without regrets cannot be cured.

Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.

Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society.

To lead an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd.

We acquire a particular quality by acting in a particular way.

Poverty begets revolution and crime.

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

Education is the best provision for old age.

The law is reason, free from passion.

Every rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal.

Praise invariably implies a reference to a higher standard.

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

It is a part of probability that many improbabilities will happen.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.

Men do not become tyrants in order that they may not suffer cold.

Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

He who had never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.

It's the fastest who gets paid, and it's the fastest who gets laid.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

Educating the head without educating the heart is no education at all.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.

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

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.

No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

Whatever lies within our power to do lies also within our power not to do.

They are fond of fun and therefore witty, wit being well-bred insolence.

Aristotle Thoughts in English

Man is a political being.

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Hope is a waking dream.

To perceive is to suffer.

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A friend to all is a friend to none.

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Happiness depends upon ourselves.

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Happiness is a state of activity.

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Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

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Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

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Philosophy can make people sick.

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Wit is educated insolence.

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The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.

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Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

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Nature does nothing uselessly.

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A friend is a second self.

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

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The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

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The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

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Through discipline comes freedom.

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Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

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All men by nature desire knowledge.

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The secret to humor is surprise.

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Memory is the scribe of the soul.

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The Law is Reason free from Passion.

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Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient.

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All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

Aristotle Thoughts Page

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

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Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.

Those who cannot bravely face danger are the slaves of their attackers.

Aristotle Sayings

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

Comedy has had no history, because it was not at first treated seriously.

The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.

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

Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.

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

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

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

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

Anyone who has no need of anybody but himself is either a beast or a God.

The cultivation of the intellect is man's highest good and purest happiness.

If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.

An educated mind is able to entertain a thought critically, without accepting it. *

Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.

To the query, What is a friend? his reply was A single soul dwelling in two bodies.

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.

We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends behave to us.

If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.

Distance does not break off the friendship absolutely, but only the activity of it.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

The man who does not enjoy doing noble actions is not a good man at all.

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

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

The soul never thinks without a picture. Hope is the dream of a waking man.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.

To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.

All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.

For the essence of a riddle is to express true facts under impossible combinations.

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.

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

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

All Earthquakes and Disasters are warnings; there’s too much corruption in the world.

The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.

Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.

It is impossible, or not easy, to alter by argument what has long been absorbed by habit.

Without virtue, man is most unholy and savage, and worst in regard to sex and eating.

To seek for utility everywhere is entirely unsuited to men that are great-souled and free.

One thing alone not even God can do, To make undone whatever hath been done.

Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.

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

For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize.

Justice is the loveliest and health is the best, but the sweetest to obtain is the heart's desire.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

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

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.

For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.

It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

Accordingly, the poet should prefer probable impossibilities to improbable possibilities.

For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.

The government is everywhere sovereign in the state, and the constitution is in fact the government.

Courage is the mother of all virtues because without it, you cannot consistently perform the others.

With the truth, all given facts harmonize; but with what is false, the truth soon hits a wrong note.

Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something.

Anything whose presence or absence makes no discernible difference is no essential part of the whole.

Democracy arose from men’s thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are therir own.

Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.

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

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

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

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because life is sweet and they are growing.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

How can a man know what is good or best for him, and yet chronically fail to act upon his knowledge?

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.

At the Olympic Games, it isn't the most beautiful or strongest who are crowned, but those who compete.

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

That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal.

The plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy; Character holds the second place.

All human happiness or misery takes the form of action; the end for which we live is a certain kind of action.

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form, but with regard to their mode of life.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.

With respect to the requirement of art, the probable impossible is always preferable to the improbable possible.

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

Now it is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act best and live happily.

I have gained this by philosophy … I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law.

A courageous person is one who faces fearful things as he ought and as reason directs for the sake of what is noble.

Inequality is everywhere at the bottom of faction, for in general faction arises from men's striving for what is equal.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

Happiness then, is found to be something perfect and self sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.

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

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

Even that some people try deceived me many times ... I will not fail to believe that somewhere, someone deserves my trust.

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

Virtue lies in our power, and similarly so does vice; because where it is in our power to act, it is also in our power not to act...

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.

The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order symmetry and limitations; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.

It is their character indeed that makes people who they are. But it is by reason of their actions that they are happy or the reverse.

The many are more incorruptible than the few; they are like the greater quantity of water which is less easily corrupted than a little.

Yes the truth is that men's ambition and their desire to make money are among the most frequent causes of deliberate acts of injustice.

We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage.

Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.

All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.

He is his own best friend and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy and is afraid of solitude.

These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions ... The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life.

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

Happiness does not lie in amusement; it would be strange if one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one's life in order to amuse oneself.

All who have meditated upon the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depend upon the education of youth.

One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.

To write well, express yourself like common people, but think like a wise man. Or, think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.

Moral experience - the actual possession and exercise of good character - is necessary truly to understand moral principles and profitably to apply them.

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

And of course, the brain is not responsible for any of the sensations at all. The correct view is that the seat and source of sensation is the region of the heart.

It is also in the interests of the tyrant to make his subjects poor... the people are so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for plotting.

The female is, as it were, a mutilated male, and the catamenia are semen, only not pure; for there is only one thing they have not in them, the principle of soul.

The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.

He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life.

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 the government to the utmost.

We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.

History describes what has happened, poetry what might. Hence poetry is something more philosophic and serious than history; for poetry speaks of what is universal, history of what is particular.

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.

Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly every action and rational choice, is thought to aim at some good; and so the good had been aptly described as that at which everything aims.

The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances.

Those who are not angry at the things they should be angry at are thought to be fools, and so are those who are not angry in the right way, at the right time, or with the right persons.

It is well said, then, that it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced, and by doing temperate acts the temperate man; without doing these no one would have even a prospect of becoming good.

Nature does nothing in vain. Therefore, it is imperative for persons to act in accordance with their nature and develop their latent talents, in order to be content and complete.

Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider to be God-fearing and pious.

Anyone can get angry, but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for everyone, nor is it easy.

Even in adversity, nobility shines through, when a man endures repeated and severe misfortune with patience, not owing to insensibility but from generosity and greatness of soul.

The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.

First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.

The man who is isolated, who is unable to share in the benefits of political association, or has no need to share because he is already self-sufficient, is no part of the polis, and must therefore be either a beast or a god.

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility. The story should never be made up of improbable incidents; there should be nothing of the sort in it.

Friends are an aid to the young, to guard them from error; to the elderly, to attend to their wants and to supplement their failing power of action; to those in the prime of life, to assist them to noble deeds.

The greater the number of owners, the less the respect for common property. People are much more careful of their personal possessions than of those owned communally; they exercise care over common property only in so far as they are personally affected.

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

Wretched, ephemeral race, children of chance and tribulation, why do you force me to tell you the very thing which it would be most profitable for you not to hear? The very best thing is utterly beyond your reach: not to have been born, not to be, to be nothing. However, the second best thing for you is: to die soon.

This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor; it is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in the dissimilar.

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.

Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.

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.

Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

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.

The most perfect political community must be among those who are in the middle rank, and those states are best instituted wherein these are a larger and more respectable part, if possible, than both the other; or, if that cannot be, at least than either of them separate.

So it is naturally with the male and the female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind.

It is absurd to hold that a man should be ashamed of an inability to defend himself with his limbs, but not ashamed of an inability to defend himself with speech and reason; for the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.

It is a great thing, indeed, to make a proper use of the poetical forms, as also of compounds and strange words. But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.