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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
Book:Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens
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“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
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“So we must lay it down that the association which is a state exists not for the purpose of living together but for the sake of noble actions. Those who contribute most to this kind of association are for that very reason entitled to a larger share in the state than those who, though they may be equal or even superior in free birth and in family, are inferior in the virtue that belongs to a citizen. Similarly they are entitled to a larger share than those who are superior in riches but inferior in virtue.”

KindMayStatesReasonActionTogetherPurposePoliticsVirtueShareBirthCitizensEqualLaysSakeRichesNobleSuperiorsAssociationInferiorsEntitledLiving Together
Author:Aristotle
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“But since there is but one aim for the entire state, it follows that education must be one and the same for all, and that the responsibility for it must be a public one, not the private affair which it now is, each man looking after his own children and teaching them privately whatever private curriculum he thinks they ought to study.”

ThinkingMenChildrenStatesPoliticsResponsibilityStudyTeachingOughtAimAffairCurriculum
Book:A New Aristotle reader
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“Nor was civil society founded merely to preserve the lives of its members; but that they might live well: for otherwise a state might be composed of slaves, or the animal creation... nor is it an alliance mutually to defend each other from injuries, or for a commercial intercourse. But whosoever endeavors to establish wholesome laws in a state, attends to the virtues and vices of each individual who composes it; from whence it is evident, that the first care of him who would found a city, truly deserving that name, and not nominally so, must be to have his citizens virtuous.”

FirstsWellsStatesMightCareLawFoundNamesIndividualAnimalCitiesVirtueSocietyCreationCitizensMembersSlaveVicesPreservesInjuryEndeavorVirtuousEvidentAlliancesIntercourseDeservingCivil SocietyLive WellThis Society
Author:Aristotle
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“Salt water when it turns into vapour becomes sweet, and the vapour does not form salt water when it condenses again. This I know by experiment. The same thing is true in every case of the kind: wine and all fluids that evaporate and condense back into a liquid state become water. They all are water modified by a certain admixture, the nature of which determines their flavour.”

KnowsKindDoeStatesFormScienceCertainTurnsWaterCasesSweetSolutionsWineDetermineExperimentsSaltFluidLiquidFlavourVapourSalt Water
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 1: The Revised Oxford Translation
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“Those who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people.”

PeopleEndsCountryStatesDifferencesMastersRevolutionArmsPleaseGunStandingArmyCourtCommandObservationMinistersGun ControlPursuedSecond Amendment
Author:Aristotle
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“To let them share in the highest offices is to take a risk; inevitably, their unjust standards will cause them to commit injustice, and their lack of judgement will lead them into error. On the other hand there is a risk in not giving them a share, and in their non participation, for when there are many who have no property and no honours they inevitably constitute a huge hostile element in the state. But it can still remain open to them to participate in deliberating and judging.”

GivingStillsStatesHandsPoliticalCausesRiskShareJudgingHugeOfficeElementsHighestStandardsPropertyErrorsInjusticeCommitJudgementHonourParticipationUnjustHostile
Author:Aristotle
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“Memory is therefore, neither Perception nor Conception, but a state or affection of one of these, conditioned by lapse of time. As already observed, there is no such thing as memory of the present while present, for the present is object only of perception, and the future, of expectation, but the object of memory is the past. All memory, therefore, implies a time elapsed; consequently only those animals which perceive time remember, and the organ whereby they perceive time is also that whereby they remember.”

StatesPastRememberMemoriesAnimalObjectsPerceptionExpectationsAffectionPerceiveConceptionOrgansLapses
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)
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“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.”

IfsMenHumansWellsKindSoulStatesActionCertainTurnsPrinciplesVirtueActivityPerformancesFunctionExcellenceNobleRationalAppropriateGood ManImplyingNicomachean Ethics
Author:Aristotle
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“One would have thought that it was even more necessary to limit population than property; and that the limit should be fixed by calculating the chances of mortality in the children, and of sterility in married persons. The neglect of this subject, which in existing states is so common, is a never-failing cause of poverty among the citizens; and poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”

ShouldChildrenPersonsStatesCausesParentChanceCommonPovertyFailingSubjectsCrimeRevolutionCitizensLimitsMarriedPropertyPopulationFixedNeglectMortalityCalculatingCauses Of Poverty
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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“When several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing, the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life.”

NeedsSelfStatesEnoughCommunityUnitedExistenceSakeVillageGood LifeContinuing
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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“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.”

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