Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
Aristotle
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Aristotle quotes
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
Wit is educated insolence.
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Nature does nothing uselessly.
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way.
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
A true friend is one soul in two bodies.
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
All men by nature desire to know.
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
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.
As a rock on the seashore he standeth firm, and the dashing of the waves disturbeth him not. He raiseth his head like a tower on a hill, and the arrows of fortune drop at his feet. In the instant of danger, the courage of his heart sustaineth him; and the steadiness of his mind beareth him out.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
Bad men are full of repentance.
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.
Change in all things is sweet.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.
Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.
Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
Education is the best provision for old age.
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy.
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
Homer has taught all other poets the are of telling lies skillfully.
Hope is a waking dream.
Hope is the dream of a waking man.
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.
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.
It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
Man is by nature a political animal.
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.
Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
Most people would rather give than get affection.
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.
No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.
Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.
Strange that the vanity which accompanies beauty - excusable, perhaps, when there is such great beauty, or at any rate understandable -should persist after the beauty was gone.
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
That in the soul which is called the mind is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing.
The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
The appropriate age for marriage is around eighteen for girls and thirty-seven for men.
The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
The gods too are fond of a joke.
The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
The law is reason, free from passion.
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.
The more thou dost advance, the more thy feet pitfalls will meet. The Path that leadeth on is lighted by one fire- the light of daring burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall obtain. The more he fears, the more that light shall pale - and that alone can guide.
The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
The secret to humor is surprise.
The soul never thinks without a picture.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.
Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.
Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.
To the query, ''What is a friend?'' his reply was ''A single soul dwelling in two bodies.''
Tragedy is thus a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude... by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
We live in deeds, not years: In thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
We make war that we may live in peace.
We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.
We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.
Well begun is half done.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
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