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Quote by Aristotle

“Now it is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act best and live happily.”

Quote by Aristotle

Work

This book delves into the fundamental principles and practices of politics, examining various political systems and ideologies across different historical periods and cultures. more

Author

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. more

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“The good lawgiver should inquire how states and races of men and communities may participate in a good life, and in the happiness which is attainable by them.”

Men Should May States Government Community Race Good Life

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

Source: Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

“There is nothing grand or noble in having the use of a slave, in so far as he is a slave; or in issuing commands about necessary things. But it is an error to suppose that every sort of rule is despotic like that of a master over slaves, for there is as great a difference between the rule over freemen and the rule over slaves as there is between slavery by nature and freedom by nature . .”

Use Government Differences Masters Slavery Errors Slave Noble Command Freeman Necessary Things

Book:Politics

Source: Politics

“If, therefore, there is any one superior in virtue and in the power of performing the best actions, him we ought to follow and obey, but he must have the capacity for action as well as virtue.”

Ifs Wells Government Action Virtue Ought Capacity Superiors Performing

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)

“Some things the legislator must find ready to his hand in a state, others he must provide. And therefore we can only say: May our state be constituted in such a manner as to be blessed with the goods of which fortune disposes (for we acknowledge her power): whereas virtue and goodness in the state are not a matter of chance but the result of knowledge and purpose. A city can be virtuous only when the citizens who have a share in the government are virtuous, and in our state all the citizens share in the government.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)

“The government of freemen is nobler and implies more virtue than despotic government. Neither is a city to be deemed happy or a legislator to be praised because he trains his citizens to conquer and obtain dominion over their neighbors, for there is great evil in this.”

Government Evil Cities Virtue Citizens Train Neighbor Conquer Dominion Legislators Freeman

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“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.”

Men Should Firsts War Government Views Study Masters Exercise Deserve Thirds Slave Sake Empires Despotism Enslavement Be A Slave Second Place Third Place

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“A thing chosen always as an end and never as a means we call absolutely final. Now happiness above all else appears to be absolutely final in this sense, since we always choose it for its own sake and never as a means to something else.”

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Book:The Nicomachean ethics

Source: The Nicomachean ethics

“It is our actions and the soul's active exercise of its functions that we posit (as being Happiness).”

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Book:The Nicomachean ethics

Source: The Nicomachean ethics

“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.”

Source: Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

“It is the active exercise of our faculties in conformity with virtue that causes happiness, and the opposite activities its opposite.”

Happiness Causes Virtue Exercise Activity Opposites Active Faculty Conformity

Book:The Nicomachean ethics

Source: The Nicomachean ethics