Aristotle Quotes
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The good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties. This exercise must occupy a complete lifetime. One swallow does make a spring, nor does one fine day. Excellence is a habit, not an event.
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A state is an association of similar persons whose aim is the best life possible. What is best is happiness, and to be happy is an active exercise of virtue and a complete employment of it.
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Happiness comes from theperfect practice of virtue.
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Law is order, and good law is good order.
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Not to get what you have set your heart on is almost as bad as getting nothing at all.
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Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.
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Revolutions are effected in two ways, by force and by fraud.
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The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor; it is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity of the dissimilar.
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Wit is cultured insolence.
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It was through the feeling of wonder that men now and at first began to philosophize.
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Laughter is a bodily exercise, precious to Health.
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It has been well said that 'he who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.' The two are not the same, but the good citizen ought to be capable of both; he should know how to govern like a freeman, and how to obey like a freeman - these are the virtues of a citizen.
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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.
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Men create the gods after their own images.
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The business of every art is to bring something into existence, and the practice of an art involves the study of how to bring into existence something which is capable of having such an existence and has its efficient cause in the maker and not in itself.
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Music has a power of forming the character, and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young.
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Dissimilarity of habit tends more than anything to destroy affection.
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Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
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All men seek one goal: success or happiness.
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The society that loses its grip on the past is in danger, for it produces men who know nothing but the present, and who are not aware that life had been, and could be, different from what it is.
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For the lesser evil is reckoned a good in comparison with the greater evil, since the lesser evil is rather to be chosen than the greater.
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These, then, are the four kinds of royalty. First the monarchy of the heroic ages; this was exercised over voluntary subjects, but limited to certain functions; the king was a general and a judge, and had the control of religion The second is that of the barbarians, which is a hereditary despotic government in accordance with law. A third is the power of the so-called Aesynmete or Dictator; this is an elective tyranny. The fourth is the Lacedaemonian, which is in fact a generalship, hereditary and perpetual.
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Art is identical with a state of capacity to make, involving a true course of reasoning.
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.. for desire is like a wild beast, and anger perverts rulers and the very best of men. Hence law is intelligence without appetition.