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| Aristotle Greek. Author. Philosopher. Member Plato's Acadamy, 367-347 BC; created Logic, the science of reasoning.
...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......happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it... A bad man can do a million times more harm than a beast.A brave man is clear in his discourse, and keeps close to truth.A common danger unites even the bitterest enemies.A Delphic sword.A democracy is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no property, and unskilled labor. A flatterer is a friend who is your inferior, or pretends to be so. A friend is a second self. A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one. A human being is a naturally political [animal]. A king ruleth as he ought, a tyrant as he lists, a king to the profit of all, a tyrant only to please a few.A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange...Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship. A true friend is one soul in two bodies. A very populous city can rarely, if ever, be well governed.A whole is that which has beginning, middle and end.Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.All art, all education, can be merely a supplement to nature. All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire. All men by nature desire to know. All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.All that one gains by falsehood is, not to be believed when he speaks the truth.All that we do is done with an eye to something else.All virtue is summed up in dealing justly. All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth. Ancient laws remain in force long after the people have the power to change them.And it is characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like, and the association of living beings who have this sense makes family and a state.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 often as we do good, we offer sacrifice to God.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. Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age. Beauty depends on size as well as symmetry. No very small animal can be beautiful, for looking at it takes so small a portion of time that the impression of it will be confused. Nor can any very large one, for a whole view of it cannot be had at once, and so there will be no unity and completeness.Between friends there is no need of justice.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. Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids. Civil confusions often spring from trifles but decide great issues. Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others. Cruel is the strife of brothers.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. Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers. Democracy [is] when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.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. Different men seek happiness in different ways and by different means.Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. Education is the best provision for the journey to old age. Either a beast or a god.Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.Every rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal.Everything is always done for the wrong reasons.Evil draws men together.Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil. First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.For as the interposition of a rivulet, however small, will occasion the line of the phalanx to fluctuate, so any trifling disagreement will be the cause of seditions; but they will not so soon flow from anything else as from the disagreement between virtue and vice, and next to that between poverty and riches.For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy. For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first. For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve. Forget your troubles as easily as you do your blessings.Friends are an aid to the young, to guard them from error; to the elderly, to attend to their wants and to supplement their failing power of action; to those in the prime of life, to assist them to noble deeds.Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. Friendship is essentially a partnership. Govern a family as you would cook a small fish - very gently.Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy. Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient.Happiness depends upon ourselves. Happiness is a sort of action.Happiness is activity.happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of itHappiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.Happiness may be defined as good fortune joined to virtue, or a independence, or as a life that is both agreeable and secure.He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy and is afraid of solitude.He who confers a benefit on anyone loves him better than he is beloved.He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.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. How God ever brings like to like.How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms. Humanity is divided into two: the masters and the slaves.Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit. 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 by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law. If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.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 the government to the utmost. If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way. If the hammer and the shuttle could move themselves, slavery would be unnecessary. If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.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 all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. 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. In revolutions the occasions may be trifling but great interest are at stake.In the arena of human life the honours and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities. Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.Intuition is the source of scientific knowledge.It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken. It is easy to fly into a passion--anybody can do that--but to be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right time with the right object and in the right way--that is not easy, and it is not everyone who can do it. -It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully. It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered. 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 always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen. It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world. It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way.It is possible to spell a word correctly by chance, or because someone prompts
you, but you are a scholar only if you spell it correctly because you know how.It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible.It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.It was through the feeling of wonder that men now and at first began to philosophize.It will contribute towards one's object, who wishes to acquire a facility in the gaining of knowledge, to doubt judiciously.It's best to rise from life like a banquet, neither thirsty or drunken.Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.Law is mind without reason. Law is order, and good law is good order.Learning is not child's play; we cannot learn without pain.Liars when they speak the truth are not believed. Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.Man is by nature a civic animal.Man is by nature a political animal. Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice. Melancholy men are of all others the most witty.Memory is the scribe of the soul.Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way ... you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way. Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence. Men cling to life even at the cost of enduring great misfortune.Men come together in cities in order to live: they remain together in order to live the good life. Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life. Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil and, if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty.Misfortune shows those who are not really friends. 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. My friends! There are no friends.Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.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 finds fault with defects which are the result of nature.No one loves the man whom he fears.No one will dare maintain that it is better to do injustice than to bear it.No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world. No tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other.Nor was civil society founded merely to preserve the lives of its members; but that they might live well: for otherwise a state might be composed of slaves, or the animal creation... nor is it an alliance mutually to defend each other from injuries, or for a commercial intercourse. But whosoever endeavors to establish wholesome laws in a state, attends to the virtues and vices of each individual who composes it; from whence it is evident, that the first care of him who would found a city, truly deserving that name, and not nominally so, must be to have his citizens virtuous.Obstinate people can be divded into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish.Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved. Of mankind in general, the parts are greater than the whole.One should know that living beings are moist and warm...however, old age is dry and cold. One swallow does not make a summer. One swallow does not make spring.Our characters are a result of our conduct.People generally despise where they flatter.Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction.Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference. Philosophy is the science which considers truth.Philosophy just fools you into thinking what you do is right.Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.Plausible impossibilities should be preferred to unconvincing possibilities.Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular. Poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history.Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness. Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. Praise invariably implies a reference to a higher standard.Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities. Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms. Revolutions are not about trifles, but spring from trifles. Shame is an ornament of the young; a disgrace of the old.Since the things we do determine the character of life, no blessed person can become unhappy. For he will never do those things which are hateful and petty.So it is naturally with the male and the female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind.Some men are just as firmly convinced of what they think as others of what they know.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. Teachers who educate children deserve more honor than parents who merely gave birth; for bare life is furnished by the one, the other ensures a good life.That in the soul which is called the mind is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing. The activity of happiness must occupy an entire lifetime; for one swallow does not a summer make.The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain. The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.The appropriate age for marriage is around eighteen for girls and thirty-seven for men. The avarice of mankind is insatiable.The bad man is continually at war with, and in opposition to, himself.The basis of a democratic state is liberty. The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.The beginning, as the proverb says, is half the whole.The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake. The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class. The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead. The end of labor is to gain leisure. The energy of the mind is the essence of life.The family is the association established by nature for the supply of man's everyday wants.The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness. The goal of war is peace, of business, leisure.The gods too are fond of a joke.The greatest thing in style is to have a command of metaphor.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 man is free, we say, who exists for his own sake and not for another's.The man with a host of friends who slaps on the back everybody he meets is regarded as the friend of nobody.The mass of mankind are evidently slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts.The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.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 most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes. The most perfect political community must be amongst those who are in the middle rank, and those states are best instituted wherein these are a larger and more respectable part, if possible, than both the other; or, if that cannot be, at least than either of them separate.The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching. The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law. The proof that you know something is that you are able to teach it.The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. The secret to humor is surprise.The soul never thinks without a picture. The state exists for the sake of a good life, and not for the sake of life only.The true end of tragedy is to purify the passions.The two qualities which chiefly inspire regard and affection [Are] that a thing is your own and that it is your only one.The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival. The vigorous are no better than the lazy during one half of life, for all men are alike when asleep. The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.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. The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.There are some jobs in which it is impossible for a man to be virtuous. There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions--that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.There is a cropping-time in the races of men, as in the fruits of the field; and sometimes, if the stock be good, there springs up for a time a succession of splendid men; and then comes a period of barrenness.There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man.There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
[Lat., Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementia.]There was never a genius without a tincture of insanity. Therefore Agathon rightly says: "Of this alone even God is deprived, the power of making things that are past never to have been."Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics. They should rule who are able to rule best.They [Young People] have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things -- and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning -- all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else.Thinking is sometimes injurious to health.This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half.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. Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of out own existence.To become an able man in any profession, there are three things necessary,--nature, study, and practice.To die, and thus avoid poverty or love, or anything painful, is not the part of a brave man, but rather of a coward; for it is cowardice to avoid trouble, and the suicide does not undergo death because it is honorable, but in order to avoid evil.To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute. To learn is a natural pleasure, not confined to philosophers, but common to all men.To perceive is to suffer.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 Thales the primary question was not what do we know, but how do we know it.To the query, ''What is a friend?'' his reply was ''A single soul dwelling in two bodies.'' To write well, express yourself like common people, but think like a wise man. Or, think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.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. Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine actions than in the nonperformance of base ones.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 can do noble acts without ruling the earth and sea.We cannot learn without pain.We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace. 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 love our friends dearly, but we love the truth more.We make war that we may live in peace. We must as second best...take the least of the evils.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 is angry on the right grounds, against the right persons, in the right manner, at the right moment, and for the right length of time. We should aim rather at leveling down our desires than leveling up our means.We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.Well begun is half done. What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. What is a magician but a practicing theorist?What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do. What soon grows old? Gratitude.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. What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is slow-ripening fruit.Wit is educated insolence.With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it.Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods. Wonder implies the desire to learn.Yellow-colored objects appear to be gold.You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor. Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing. Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. [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. |
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