Quotessence
Home / Authors / Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenVirtueIfsSoulStatesActionShouldPhilosophicalPeopleGovernmentMeanMayNicomachean EthicsWayLawFormInspirationalJusticeCharacterDoe

Famous Aristotle Quotes

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

WisdomJusticeVirtuePhilosophicalPrisonModeration
Book:Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study
Create image

“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.”

ShouldMayJusticeViewsAgreeGratefulDevelopingAgreementBe GratefulSuperficialSuperficialityPower Of ThoughtThings To Be GratefulSuperficial Things
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)
Create image

“Rhetoric is useful because truth and justice are in their nature stronger than their opposites; so that if decisions be made, not in conformity to the rule of propriety, it must have been that they have been got the better of through fault of the advocates themselves: and this is deserving reprehension.”

IfsHas BeensMadeJusticeDecisionOppositesStrongerFaultsConformityRhetoricDeservingProprietyTruth And Justice
Book:Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric, Literally Tr. with Hobbes' Analysis, Examination Questions and an Appendix Containing the Greek Definitions: Also, The Poetic of Aristotle, Literally Tr., with a Selection of Notes, an Analysis, and Questions
Create image

“In the many forms of government which have sprung up there has always been an acknowledgement of justice and proportionate equality, although mankind fail in attaining them, as indeed I have already explained. Democracy, for example, 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.”

MenGovernmentFormJusticeDemocracyFailingMankindExampleEqualClaimsNotionAriseForms Of GovernmentAcknowledgementSprungSprung Up
Book:Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens
Create image

“Although it may be difficult in theory to know what is just and equal, the practical difficulty of inducing those to forbear who can, if they like, encroach, is far greater, for the weaker are always asking for equality and justice, but the stronger care for none of these things.”

IfsKnowsMayCareDifficultJusticeGreaterHuman NatureTheoryEqualDifficultyStrongerAskingPracticalsEquality And Justice
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)
Create image

“Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. As in other sciences, so in politics, it is impossible that all things should be precisely set down in writing; for enactments must be universal, but actions are concerned with particulars. Hence we infer that sometimes and in certain cases laws may be changed.”

ShouldWritingMayHas BeensSometimesActionLawCertainJusticeCasesImpossibleWrittenChangedOughtConcernedAll ThingsUniversal
Book:The Essential Aristotle
Create image

“When we look at the matter from another point of view, great caution would seem to be required. For the habit of lightly changing the laws is an evil, and, when the advantage is small, some errors both of lawgivers and rulers had better be left; the citizen will not gain so much by making the change as he will lose by the habit of disobedience.”

LooksMatterSeemsLawEvilLeftLosesJusticeViewsHabitCitizensGainsAdvantageErrorsPoint Of ViewRulersCautionDisobedience
Book:Politics
Create image

“Laws, when good, should be supreme; and that the magistrate or magistrates should regulate those matters only on which the laws are unable to speak with precision owing to the difficulty of any general principle embracing all particulars.”

ShouldMatterLawSpeakJusticePrinciplesDifficultySupremePrecisionOwingMagistrates
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
Create image

“The goodness or badness, justice or injustice, of laws varies of necessity with the constitution of states. This, however, is clear, that the laws must be adapted to the constitutions. But if so, true forms of government will of necessity have just laws, and perverted forms of government will have unjust laws.”

IfsStatesGovernmentFormLawJusticeClearGoodnessConstitutionInjusticeUnjustVaryAdaptedForms Of GovernmentBadnessUnjust Laws
Book:Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens
Create image

“Now what is just and right is to be interpreted in the sense of 'what is equal'; and that which is right in the sense of being equal is to be considered with reference to the advantage of the state, and the common good of the citizens. And a citizen is one who shares in governing and being governed. He differs under different forms of government, but in the best state he is one who is able and willing to be governed and to govern with a view to the life of virtue.”

DifferentStatesGovernmentAbleFormLawJusticeViewsCommonVirtueShareWillingCitizensEqualAdvantageGoverningForms Of GovernmentCommon GoodBeing Equal
Book:Politics
Create image

“Men agree that justice in the abstract is proportion, but they differ in that some think that if they are equal in any respect they are equal absolutely, others that if they are unequal in any respect they should be unequal in all. The only stable principle of government is equality according to proportion, and for every man to enjoy his own.”

IfsThinkingMenShouldGovernmentLawEnjoyJusticePrinciplesEqualAgreeEvery ManAbstractProportionStable
Author:Aristotle
Create image

“As to adultery, let it be held disgraceful, in general, for any man or woman to be found in any way unfaithful when they are married, and called husband and wife. If during the time of bearing children anything of the sort occur, let the guilty person be punished with a loss of privileges in proportion to the offense.”

IfsMenWayChildrenPersonsLawFoundJusticeLossWifeHusbandMarriedPrivilegeGuiltyProportionOffenseAdulteryHusband And WifeUnfaithfulDisgracefulGuilty Person
Book:Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens
Create image

“Some persons hold that, while it is proper for the lawgiver to encourage and exhort men to virtue on moral grounds, in the expectation that those who have had a virtuous moral upbringing will respond, yet he is bound to impose chastisement and penalties on the disobedient and ill-conditioned, and to banish the incorrigible out of the state altogether. For (they argue) although the virtuous man, who guides his life by moral ideals, will be obedient to reason, the base, whose desires are fixed on pleasure, must be chastised by pain, like a beast of burden.”

MenPersonsStatesReasonPainLawDesireJusticePleasureMoralVirtueExpectationsIdealsBoundsIllBurdenGuidesArguingFixedBeastVirtuousPenaltiesUpbringingObedientChastisementIncorrigibleBeast Of Burden
Author:Aristotle
Create image

“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
Book:Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens
Create image

“One kind of justice is that which is manifested in distributions of honour or money or the other things that fall to be divided among those who have a share in the constitution ... and another kind is that which plays a rectifying part in transactions.”

KindPlayFallJusticeShareConstitutionHonourDividedDistributionTransactions
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
Create image

“For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all; since armed injustice is the more dangerous, and he is equipped at birth with the arms of intelligence and with moral qualities which he may use for the worst ends. Wherefore, if he have not virtue, he is the most unholy and the most savage of animals, and the most full of lust and gluttony. But justice is the bond of men in states, and the administration of justice, which is the determination of what is just, is the principle of order in political society.”

IfsMenMayEndsStatesUseLawPoliticalOrderJusticeAnimalQualityMoralPrinciplesVirtueWorstDangerousArmsBirthDeterminationInjusticeLustAdministrationSavagesGluttonyLaw And JusticeAdministration Of Justice
Book:Aristotle
Create image

“Thus it is thought that justice is equality; and so it is, but not for all persons, only for those that are equal. Inequality also is thought to be just; and so it is, but not for all, only for the unequal. We make bad mistakes if we neglect this for whom when we are deciding what is just. The reason is that we are making judgements about ourselves, and people are generally bad judges where their own interests are involved.”

PeopleIfsPersonsReasonPoliticalInterestJusticeMistakeJudgingInvolvedEqualInequalityJudgementNeglectBad Mistake
Author:Aristotle
Create image