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Famous Aristotle Quotes

“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)
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“In the case of some people, not even if we had the most accurate scientific knowledge, would it be easy to persuade them were we to address them through the medium of that knowledge; for a scientific discourse, it is the privilege of education to appreciate, and it is impossible that this should extend to the multitude.”

PeopleIfsShouldEasyCasesImpossibleAppreciatePrivilegeMediumsAddressesAccurateMultitudesDiscourseScientific Knowledge
Book:Treatise on Rhetoric: Literally Translated from the Greek
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“Every effort therefore must be made to perpetuate prosperity. And, since that is to the advantage of the rich as well as the poor, all that accrues from the revenues should be collected into a single fund and distributed in block grants to those in need, if possible in lump sums large enough for the acquisition of a small piece of land, but if not, enough to start a business, or work in agriculture. And if that cannot be done for all, the distribution might be by tribes or some other division each in turn.”

IfsNeedsShouldWellsMadeDoneEnoughMightTurnsPoliticsPoorEffortEconomyRichPiecesLandAdvantageProsperityBlockLiberalismFundGrantsDivisionAgricultureTribesDistributionRevenueAcquisitionLumpsThose In NeedSmall Pieces
Author:Aristotle
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“We must speak first about the division of land and about those who cultivate it: who should they be and what kind of person? We do not agree with those who have said that property should be communally owned, but we do believe that there should be a friendly arrangement for its common use, and that none of the citizens should be without means of support.”

ShouldFirstsBelieveKindMeanPersonsSaidUseWisdomPoliticsSpeakCommonSupportEconomyLandCitizensAgreePropertyLiberalismFriendlyDivisionArrangements
Author:Aristotle
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“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
Book:Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens
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“Property should be in a certain sense common, but, as a general rule, private; for, when every one has a distinct interest, men will not complain of one another, and they will make more progress, because every one will be attending to his own business.”

MenShouldCertainInterestCommonProgressPropertyComplainingCommunismOwn BusinessAttending
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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“The error of Socrates must be attributed to the false notion of unity from which he starts. Unity there should be, both of the family and of the state, but in some respects only. For there is a point at which a state may attain such a degree of unity as to be no longer a state, or at which, without actually ceasing to exist, it will become an inferior state, like harmony passing into unison, or rhythm which has been reduced to a single foot. The state, as I was saying, is a plurality which should be united and made into a community by education”

ShouldMayHas BeensMadeStatesCommunityUnitedFeetDegreesHarmonyErrorsUnityNotionPassingPassingsRhythmCommunismInferiorsUnison
Book:The Essential Aristotle
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“The laws are, and ought to be, relative to the constitution, and not the constitution to the laws. A constitution is the organization of offices in a state, and determines what is to be the governing body, and what is the end of each community. But laws are not to be confounded with the principles of the constitution; they are the rules according to which the magistrates should administer the state, and proceed against offenders.”

ShouldEndsStatesBodyLawCommunityPrinciplesOughtOfficeOrganizationConstitutionDetermineRelativeGoverningOffendersMagistrates
Book:Aristotle
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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
Book:Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens
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“There is an error common to both oligarchies and to democracies: in the latter the demagogues, when the multitude are above the law, are always cutting the city in two by quarrels with the rich, whereas they should always profess to be maintaining their cause; just as in oligarchies the oligarchs should profess to maintain the cause of the people, . .”

PeopleShouldTwoLawCausesCommonCitiesDemocracyRichCuttingErrorsLatterMultitudesMaintainingQuarrelsOligarchyAbove The Law
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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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
Book:Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens
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“Special care should be taken of the health of the inhabitants, which will depend chiefly on the healthiness of the locality and of the quarter to which they are exposed, and secondly on the use of pure water; this latter point is by no means a secondary consideration. For the elements which we use the most and oftenest for the support of the body contribute most to health, and among those are water and air. Wherefore, in all wise states, if there is want of pure water, and the supply is not all equally good, the drinking water ought to be separated from that which is used for other purposes.”

IfsWantShouldMeanStatesUseBodyCareUsedPurposeWaterEducationSupportTakenWiseAirSpecialDependsOughtPureElementsDrinkingConsiderationLatterExposedQuartersDrinking WaterLocalityPure Water
Author:Aristotle
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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
Book:Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens
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“Youth should be kept strangers to all that is bad, and especially to things which suggest vice or hate. When the five years have passed away, during the two following years they must look on at the pursuits which they are hereafter to learn. There are two periods of life with reference to which education has to be divided, from seven to the age of puberty, and onwards to the age of one and twenty.”

ShouldYearsLooksTwoAgeHateEducationFiveYouthPeriodsTwentiesSevenVicesFollowingStrangerPursuitFive YearsDividedHereafterPassed AwayPuberty
Book:Politics
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“Since the whole city has one end, it is manifest that education should be one and the same for all, and that it should be public, and not private - not as at present, when every one looks after his own children separately, and gives them separate instruction of the sort which he thinks best; the training in things which are of common interest should be the same for all. Neither must we suppose that any one of the citizens belongs to himself, for they all belong to the state, and are each of them a part of the state, and the care of each part is inseparable from the care of the whole.”

ThinkingGivingShouldLooksChildrenEndsStatesWholeCareInterestCommonCitiesEducationCitizensTrainingManifestInstructionInseparableCommon Interests
Book:Aristotle
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“That education should be regulated by law and should be an affair of state is not to be denied, but what should be the character of this public education, and how young persons should be educated, are questions which remain to be considered. As things are, there is disagreement about the subjects. For mankind are by no means agreed about the things to be taught, whether we look to virtue or the best life. Neither is it clear whether education is more concerned with intellectual or with moral virtue.”

ShouldLooksMeanPersonsStatesCharacterLawYoungEducationMoralVirtueClearSubjectsMankindTaughtIntellectualConcernedAffairEducatedDeniedDisagreementPublic EducationMoral Virtues
Book:Pocket Aristotle
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“Nature herself, as has been often said, requires that we should be able, not only to work well, but to use leisure well; for, as I must repeat once again, the first principle of all action is leisure. Both are required, but leisure is better than occupation and is its end.”

ShouldFirstsWellsHas BeensSaidEndsUseAbleActionEducationPrinciplesRepeatsOccupationLeisure
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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“Take the case of just actions; just punishments and chastisements do indeed spring from a good principle, but they are good only because we cannot do without them - it would be better that neither individuals nor states should need anything of the sort - but actions which aim at honor and advantage are absolutely the best. The conditional action is only the choice of a lesser evil; whereas these are the foundation and creation of good. A good man may make the best even of poverty and disease, and the other ills of life.”

MenNeedsShouldMayStatesWould BeActionChoicesEvilIndividualPrinciplesPovertyCasesCreationHonorDiseaseSpringAdvantageAimFoundationPunishmentGood ManGood LifeChastisementConditionalLesser Evil
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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“In all well-attempered governments there is nothing which should be more jealously maintained than the spirit of obedience to law, more especially in small matters; for transgression creeps in unperceived and at last ruins the state, just as the constant recurrence of small expenses in time eats up a fortune.”

ShouldWellsMatterStatesGovernmentLastsLawSpiritConstantFortuneRuinsObedienceExpensesCreepsTransgressionRecurrenceJealously
Book:The Essential Aristotle
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“Neither should we forget the mean, which at the present day is lost sight of in perverted forms of government; for many practices which appear to be democratical are the ruin of democracies, . . Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state.”

ThinkingShouldMeanMatterStatesGovernmentFormFoundLostForgetPartyPrinciplesPracticeVirtueDemocracySightExtremesRuinsForms Of GovernmentPresent Day
Book:Politics
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“Neither should men study war with a view to the enslavement of those who do not deserve to be enslaved; but first of all they should provide against their own enslavement, and in the second place obtain empire for the good of the governed, and not for the sake of exercising a general despotism, and in the third place they should seek to be masters only over those who deserve to be slaves.”

MenShouldFirstsWarGovernmentViewsStudyMastersExerciseDeserveThirdsSlaveSakeEmpiresDespotismEnslavementBe A SlaveSecond PlaceThird Place
Book:The Essential Aristotle
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“Now if there is any gift of the gods to men, it is reasonable that happiness should be god-given, and most surely god-given of all human things inasmuch as it is the best. But this question would perhaps be more appropriate to another inquiry; happiness seems, however, even if it is not god-sent but comes as a result of virtue and some process of learning and training, to be among the most god-like things; for that which is the prize and end of virtue seems to be the best thing in the world, and something god-like and blessed.”

IfsMenWorldShouldHumansEndsSeemsHappinessGivenProcessResultsVirtueTrainingBlessedBest ThingsReasonableBeing The BestAppropriatePrizeInquiry
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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“Nor need it cause surprise that things disagreeable to the good man should seem pleasant to some men; for mankind is liable to many corruptions and diseases, and the things in question are not really pleasant, but only pleasant to these particular persons, who are in a condition to think them so.”

ThinkingMenNeedsShouldPersonsSeemsCausesConditionsMankindHuman NatureParticularDiseaseSurpriseCorruptionPleasantGood ManLiableDisagreeable
Book:The Nicomachean ethics
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“Rhetoric is useful because the true and the just are naturally superior to their opposites, so that, if decisions are improperly made, they must owe their defeat to their own advocates; which is reprehensible. Further, in dealing with certain persons, even if we possessed the most accurate scientific knowledge, we should not find it easy to persuade them by the employment of such knowledge. For scientific discourse is concerned with instruction, but in the case of such persons instruction is impossible.”

IfsShouldPersonsMadeCertainEasyDecisionCasesImpossibleConcernedOppositesDefeatSuperiorsEmploymentInstructionPossessedAccurateRhetoricDiscourseScientific Knowledge
Book:Aristotle: the art of rhetoric
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