ARISTOTLE QUOTES VII

Greek philosopher (384 B.C. - 322 B.C.)

The law is reason unaffected by desire.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: law


For pleasure is a state of soul, and to each man that which he is said to be a lover of is pleasant.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: pleasure


On a similar principle they consider that to know right and wrong is nothing clever, because what the laws speak about it cannot be hard to understand. But this is not justice, except incidentally: it is when actions are done or awards are made in a certain way that they become just.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: justice


Our statements will be adequate if made with as much clearness as the matter allows.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics


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.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


For the doubt is, whether it is possible for a man really to be wronged with his own consent, or not possible, but the act must always be done to him against his will, just as the doing a wrong must always be intentional; and again, whether the being wronged is wholly this way or that, (as the doing wrong is entirely a voluntary act,) or one kind of it is voluntary and another kind involuntary. And similarly in the case of being justly dealt with: for all just dealing is voluntary, so that it is reasonable there should be set opposite to both cases, (i.e. both the being wrongly and the being fairly treated,) the being so willingly or unwillingly. But it would seem a strange thing, in the case of being justly dealt with likewise, if it is wholly with one's consent; for some persons are justly dealt with without their consent.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics


A family, to be complete, must consist of freemen and slaves; and as every complex object naturally resolves itself into simple elements, we must consider the elements of a family--the master and servant, the husband and wife, the father and children; what all of these are in themselves, and what are the relations which they naturally and properly bear to each other.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: family


Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: youth


Comedy is, as we have said, an imitation of characters of a lower type--not, however, in the full sense of the word bad, the ludicrous being merely a subdivision of the ugly.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


Nature flies from the infinite, for the infinite is unending or imperfect, and Nature ever seeks to amend.

ARISTOTLE

On the Generation of Animals

Tags: nature


The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of all things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed.

ARISTOTLE

Metaphysics

Tags: truth


Concerning things which exist or will exist inevitably, or which cannot possibly exist or take place, no counsel can be given.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


Communities could not subsist without foresight to discern, as well as exertion to effectuate the measures requisite for their safety. Men capable of discerning those measures, are made for authority; and men merely capable of effectuating them by bodily labor, are made for obedience.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: authority


Neglect of an effective birth control policy is a never-failing source of poverty which, in turn, is the parent of revolution and crime.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: birth control


Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: law


Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: happiness


Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: piety


The majority of mankind would seem to be beguiled into error by pleasure, which, not being really a good, yet seems to be so. So that they indiscriminately choose as good whatsoever gives them pleasure, while they avoid all pain alike as evil.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: pleasure


In the human constitution, therefore, mind governs matter absolutely and despotically; but reason governs appetite with a far more limited sway.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: mind