Aristotle Quotes
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The true end of tragedy is to purify the passions.
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The guest will judge better of a feast than the cook.
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A friend is a second self, so that our consciousness of a friend's existence...makes us more fully conscious of our own existence.
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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.
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The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
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Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.
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Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
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The soul of man may be divided into two parts; that which has reason in itself, and that which hath not, but is capable of obeying its dictates.
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Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.
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The hand is the tool of tools.
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Friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons.
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When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.
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To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.
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Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.
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Every man should be responsible to others, nor should any one 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.
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We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.
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Just as it sometimes happens that deformed offspring are produced by deformed parents, and sometimes not, so the offspring produced by a female are sometimes female, sometimes not, but male, because the female is as it were a deformed male.
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For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.
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Happiness, then, is co-extensive with contemplation, and the more people contemplate, the happier they are; not incidentally, but in virtue of their contemplation, because it is in itself precious. Thus happiness is a form of contemplation.
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Being a father is the most rewarding thing a man whose career has plateaued can do.
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For we are inquiring not in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, since otherwise our inquiry would have been of no use.
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It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.
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By 'life,' we mean a thing that can nourish itself and grow and decay.
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The good citizen need not of necessity possess the virtue which makes a good man.