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The Essential Aristotle

Book by Aristotle · 11 quotes · Government, Men, Virtue

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The Essential Aristotle Quotes

“Most persons think that a state in order to be happy ought to be large; but even if they are right, they have no idea of what is a large and what a small state.... To the size of states there is a limit, as there is to other things, plants, animals, implements; for none of these retain their natural power when they are too large or too small, but they either wholly lose their nature, or are spoiled.”

IfsThinkingPersonsIdeasStatesOrderLosesNaturalAnimalOughtLimitsPlantSizeNo IdeaConsumerismSpoiledOverconsumption
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“If they do not share equally enjoyments and toils, those who labor much and get little will necessarily complain of those who labor little and receive or consume much. But indeed there is always a difficulty in men living together and having all human relations in common, but especially in their having common property.”

IfsMenHumansLittlesTogetherCommonShareLaborDifficultyRelationPropertyComplainingCommunismEnjoymentToilHuman RelationsLiving Together
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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.”

IfsMeanSaidLife IsCitiesPrinciplesVirtueFiguresEthicsConstitutionVicesCharacteristicsBeing The BestHappy LifeImpediments
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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.”

IfsSaidUsedValuesTermPerfectVirtueExerciseEthicsArgumentAbsolutesRealizationIndispensableConditional
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“If the state cannot be entirely composed of good men, and yet each citizen is expected to do his own business well, and must therefore have virtue, still inasmuch as all the citizens cannot be alike, the virtue of the citizen and of the good man cannot coincide. All must have the virtue of the good citizen - thus, and thus only, can the state be perfect; but they will not have the virtue of a good man, unless we assume that in the good state all the citizens must be good.”

IfsMenWellsStillsStatesGovernmentPerfectVirtueCitizensAssumingBe GoodExpectedGood ManOwn BusinessGood Citizen
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“Just as a royal rule, if not a mere name, must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a well-constituted form; oligarchy is little better, for it is a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.”

IfsWayWellsLittlesLongGovernmentFormThreeNamesVirtueDemocracyWorstKingsMereTyrannySuperiorityRoyalLong WayAristocracyTolerableOligarchyGreat Person
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