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Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens

Book by Aristotle · 9 quotes · Should, Common, People

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Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens Quotes

“How strange it is that Socrates, after having made the children common, should hinder lovers from carnal intercourse only, but should permit love and familiarities between father and son or between brother and brother, than which nothing can be more unseemly, since even without them love of this sort is improper. How strange, too, to forbid intercourse for no other reason than the violence of the pleasure, as though the relationship of father and son or of brothers with one another made no difference.”

ShouldChildrenMadeReasonFatherDifferencesPleasureCommonViolenceStrangeSonBrotherLoversCommunismPermitFamiliarityIntercourseHinderFather And Son
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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.”

PeopleDifferentStatesFactsThreeCommonConstitutionInstitutionsRemainsExcellentRebellionTyrantsLoyalSuperiority
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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.”

PeopleMenShouldFirstsPoliticalConstitutionUselessRelyDevicesDeceivingRely UponSecond Place
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“The form of government is a democracy when the free, who are also poor and the majority, govern, and an oligarchy when the rich and the noble govern, they being at the same time few in number.”

GovernmentFormPoorNumbersDemocracyRichMajorityNobleForms Of GovernmentOligarchy
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“Every man should be responsible to others, nor should anyone be allowed to do just as he pleases; for where absolute freedom is allowed there is nothing to restrain the evil which is inherent in every man. But the principle of responsibility secures that which is the greatest good in states; the right persons rule and are prevented from doing wrong, and the people have their due. It is evident that this is the best kind of democracy, and why? because the people are drawn from a certain class.”

PeopleMenShouldKindPersonsStatesCertainEvilResponsibilityClassPrinciplesDemocracyPleaseAbsolutesResponsibleDuesEvery ManInherentEvidentBeing ResponsibleRight PersonAbsolute Freedom
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“Women who are with child should be careful of themselves; they should take exercise and have a nourishing diet. The first of these prescriptions the legislator will easily carry into effect by requiring that they should take a walk daily to some temple, where they can worship the gods who preside over birth. Their minds, however, unlike their bodies, they ought to keep quiet, for the offspring derive their natures from their mothers as plants do from earth.”

ShouldMindFirstsChildrenBodyEarthMotherWalksEducationEffectsOughtBirthExerciseQuietWorshipPlantCarefulDietsTemplesBe CarefulPrescriptionsOffspringLegislators
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“There are branches of learning and education which we must study merely with a view to leisure spent in intellectual activity, and these are to be valued for their own sake; whereas those kinds of knowledge which are useful in business are to be deemed necessary, and exist for the sake of other things.”

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“In bad or corrupted natures the body will often appear to rule over the soul, because they are in an evil and unnatural condition. At all events we may firstly observe in living creatures both a despotical and a constitutional rule; for the soul rules the body with a despotical rule, whereas the intellect rules the appetites with a constitutional and royal rule. And it is clear that the rule of the soul over the body, and of the mind and the rational element over the passionate, is natural and expedient; whereas the equality of the two or the rule of the inferior is always hurtful.”

MindMayTwoSoulBodyEvilNaturalClearConditionsEventsCreaturesElementsPassionateIntellectRationalAppetiteInferiorsRoyalUnnaturalHurtfulLiving Creatures
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“Governments which have a regard to the common interest are constituted in accordance with strict principles of justice, and are therefore true forms; but those which regard only the interest of the rulers are all defective and perverted forms, for they are despotic, whereas a state is a community of freemen.”

StatesGovernmentFormInterestCommunityJusticeCommonPrinciplesRegardTyrantsRulersStrictDefectiveFreemanCommon Interests
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