Aristotle Quotes
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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.
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Suppose, then, that all men were sick or deranged, save one or two of them who were healthy and of right mind. It would then be the latter two who would be thought to be sick and deranged and the former not!
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That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal.
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Education is the best provision for old age.
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There is honor in being a dog.
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The man who confers a favour would rather not be repaid in the same coin.
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True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.
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Civil confusions often spring from trifles but decide great issues.
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You are what you do repeatedly.
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We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends behave to us.
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...for all men do their acts with a view to achieving something which is, in their view, a good.
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Money is a guarantee that we may have what we want in the future. Though we need nothing at the moment it insures the possibility of satisfying a new desire when it arises.
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Men become richer not only by increasing their existing wealth but also by decreasing their expenditure.
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We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference.
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The appropriate age for marriage is around eighteen for girls and thirty-seven for men.
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Rightness in our choice of an end is secured by Moral Virtue.
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There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves. This condition would be that each inanimate instrument could do its own work.
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Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
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The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class.
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In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
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To be always seeking after the useful does not become free and exalted souls.
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Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled ; and by doing brave acts, we become brave.
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It is their character indeed that makes people who they are. But it is by reason of their actions that they are happy or the reverse.
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We should aim rather at leveling down our desires than leveling up our means.