Aristotle Quotes

Philosopher

Aristotle, a renowned Greek philosopher, is one of the founders of Western philosophy. His thoughts covered a wide range of fields, including ethics, logic, politics, and had a profound impact on the world.

Filter quotes by topic

All Men Virtue Ifs Soul States Action Should Philosophical People Government Mean May Nicomachean Ethics Way Law Form Inspirational Justice Character Doe

Famous Aristotle Quotes

“If the art of ship-building were in the wood, ships would exist by nature.”

Ifs Art Atheism Building Woods Ships

Author:Aristotle

“If purpose, then, is inherent in art, so is it in Nature also. The best illustration is the case of a man being his own physician, for Nature is like that - agent and patient at once.”

Ifs Men Art Purpose Nature Cases Patient Agents Inherent Physicians Illustration

Book:Aristotle, the Physics

Source: Aristotle, the Physics

“Music directly represents the passions of the soul. If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person.”

Ifs Kind Persons Soul Passion

Author:Aristotle

“If something's bound to happen, it will happen.. Right time, right person, and for the best reason.”

Ifs Persons Reason Happens Bounds Right Time Right Person

Author:Aristotle

“The physician himself, if sick, actually calls in another physician, knowing that he cannot reason correctly if required to judge his own condition while suffering.”

Ifs Reason Suffering Knowing Conditions Judging Disease Sick Physicians

Author:Aristotle

“If we state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate excellence human good turns out to be activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete.”

Ifs Men Humans Wells Kind Soul States Action Certain Turns Principles Virtue Activity Performances Function Excellence Noble Rational Appropriate Good Man Implying Nicomachean Ethics

Author:Aristotle

“For just as for a flute-player, a sculptor, or an artist, and, in general, for all things that have a function or activity, the good and the well is thought to reside in the function, so would it seem to be for man, if he has a function.”

Ifs Men Wells Seems Artist Player Activity All Things Function Sculptors Flutes Nicomachean Ethics

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)

“Men are divided between those who are as thrifty as if they would live forever, and those who are as extravagant as if they were going to die the next day.”

Ifs Men Dies Next Forever Divided Next Day Live Forever Extravagant Thrift Thrifty

Author:Aristotle

“The most perfect political community must be amongst 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.”

Ifs States Political Community Perfect Class Society Middle Middle Class Respectable

Book:A treatise on government: translated from the Greek of Aristotle

Source: A treatise on government: translated from the Greek of Aristotle

“A very populous city can rarely, if ever, be well governed.”

Ifs Wells Cities

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“Good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.”

Ifs Government Law

Book:Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

Source: Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

“If men think that a ruler is religious and has a reverence for the Gods, they are less afraid of suffering injustice at his hands.”

Ifs Thinking Men Hands Suffering Religious Injustice Reverence Rulers

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“The saying of Protagoras is like the views we have mentioned; he said that man is the measure of all things, meaning simply that that which seems to each man assuredly is. If this is so, it follows that the same thing both is and is not, and is bad and good, and that the contents of all other opposite statements are true, because often a particular thing appears beautiful to some and ugly to others, and that which appears to each man is the measure”

Ifs Men Said Seems Beautiful Views Particular All Things Opposites Ugly Statements

Book:Metaphysics

Source: Metaphysics

“Since we think we understand when we know the explanation, and there are four types of explanation (one, what it is to be a thing; one, that if certain things hold it is necessary that this does; another, what initiated the change; and fourth, the aim), all these are proved through the middle term.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Doe Science Certain Term Four Middle Type Evidence Aim Explanation Fourth

Book:The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, One-Volume Digital Edition

Source: The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, One-Volume Digital Edition