Aristotle

“Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.”

“Accordingly, the poet should prefer probable impossibilities to improbable possibilities.”

“There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man.”

“Tis the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

“Hope is the dream of a waking man”

“[I]t is rather the case that we desire something because we believe it to be good than that we believe a thing to be good because we desire it. It is the thought that starts things off.”

“Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.”

“Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.”

“Excellence is an ArtWon by Training and Habit.We do not act rightlyBecause we have Virtue and Excellence,But rather, we have Virtue and ExcellenceBecause we act rightly.”

“He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life.”

“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.”

“Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly every action and rational choice, is thought to aim at some good; and so the good had been aptly described as that at which everything aims.”

“What makes a man a 'sophist' is not his faculty, but his moral purpose. (1355b 17)”

“The pleasures arising from thinking and learning will make us think and learn all the more. 1153a 23”

“That becomes clear if you try to define the objects and things which supervene in each class. Odd and even, straight and curved, number, line, and shape can be defined without change but flesh, bone, and man cannot. They are like sbub nose, not like curved.”

“Comedy has had no history, because it was not at first treated seriously.”

“All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.”

“We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage.”

“Nature does nothing in vain. Therefore, it is imperative for persons to act in accordance with their nature and develop their latent talents, in order to be content and complete.”

“Even that some people try deceived me many times ... I will not fail to believe that somewhere, someone deserves my trust.”

“Happiness does not lie in amusement; it would be strange if one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one's life in order to amuse oneself”

“bad men... aim at getting more than their share of advantages, while in labor and public service they fall short of their share; and each man wishing for advantage to himself criticizes his neighbor and stands in his way; for if people do not watch it carefully the common weal is soon destroyed. The result is that they are in a state of faction, putting compulsion on each other but unwilling themselves to do what is just.”

“The self-indulgent man craves for all pleasant things... and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else.”

“It is also in the interests of the tyrant to make his subjects poor... the people are so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for plotting.”

“Inequality is everywhere at the bottom of faction, for in general faction arises from men's striving for what is equal.”

“When states are democratically governed according to law, there are no demagogues, and the best citizens are securely in the saddle; but where the laws are not sovereign, there you find demagogues. The people become a monarch... such people, in its role as a monarch, not being controlled by law, aims at sole power and becomes like a master.”

“Yes the truth is that men's ambition and their desire to make money are among the most frequent causes of deliberate acts of injustice.”

“...it is all wrong that a person who is going to be deemed worthy of the office should himself solicit it... for no one who is not ambitious would ask to hold office.”

“the greater the number of owners, the less the respect for common property. People are much more careful of their personal possessions than of those owned communally; they exercise care over common property only in so far as they are personally affected.”

“Such [communistic] legislation may have a specious appearance of benevolence; men readily listen to it, and are easily induced to believe that in some wonderful manner everybody will become everybody's friend, especially when some one is heard denouncing the evils now existing in states, suits about contracts, convictions for perjury, flatteries of rich men and the like, which are said to arise out of the possession of private property. These evils, however, are due to a very different cause - the wickedness of human nature. Indeed, we see that there is much more quarrelling among those who have all things in common, though there are not many of them when compared with the vast numbers who have private property.”

“Courage is the mother of all virtues because without it, you cannot consistently perform the others.”

“Those who are not angry at the things they should be angry at are thought to be fools, and so are those who are not angry in the right way, at the right time, or with the right persons.”

“Distance does not break off the friendship absolutely, but only the activity of it.”

“Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.”

“Quid quid movetur ab alio movetur"(nothing moves without having been moved).”

“It is likely that unlikely things should happen”

“Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.”

“A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end.”

“To lead an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd”

“It is absurd to hold that a man should be ashamed of an inability to defend himself with his limbs, but not ashamed of an inability to defend himself with speech and reason; for the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.”

“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.”

“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 worth while to live. He is of a disposition to do men service, though he is ashamed to have a service done to him. To confer a kindness is a mark of superiority; to receive one is a mark of subordination... He does not take part in public displays... He is open in his dislikes and preferences; he talks and acts frankly, because of his contempt for men and things... He is never fired with admiration, since there is nothing great in his eyes. He cannot live in complaisance with others, except it be a friend; complaisance is the characteristic of a slave... He never feels malice, and always forgets and passes over injuries... He is not fond of talking... It is no concern of his that he should be praised, or that others should be blamed. He does not speak evil of others, even of his enemies, unless it be to themselves. His carriage is sedate, his voice deep, his speech measured; he is not given to hurry, for he is concerned about only a few things; he is not prone to vehemence, for he thinks nothing very important. A shrill voice and hasty steps come to a man through care... He bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of his circumstances, like a skillful general who marshals his limited forces with the strategy of war... 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.”

“youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.”

“De lo que hemos dicho se desprende que la tarea del poeta es describir no lo que haacontecido, sino lo que podría haber ocurrido, esto es, tanto lo que es posible comoprobable o necesario. La distinción entre el historiador y el poeta no consiste en queuno escriba en prosa y el otro en verso; se podrá trasladar al verso la obra de Herodoto, yella seguiría siendo una clase de historia. La diferencia reside en que uno relata lo que hasucedido, y el otro lo que podría haber acontecido. De aquí que la poesía sea másfilosófica y de mayor dignidad que la historia.”

“Man is his desire.”

“There was never a genius without a tincture of madness…”

“The cultivation of the intellect is man's highest good and purest happiness”

“Happiness is a quality of the soul...not a function of one's material circumstances.”

“And further, observing that all this indeterminate substance is in motion, and that no true predication can be made of that which changes, they supposed that it is impossible to make any true statement about that which is in all ways and entirely changeable. For it was from this supposition that there blossomed forth the most extreme view of those which we have mentioned, that of the professed followers of Heraclitus, and such as Cratylus held, who ended by thinking that one need not say anything, and only moved his finger; and who criticized Heraclitus for saying that one cannot enter the same river twice, for he himself held that it cannot be done even once.”

“Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something”