Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Aristotle Philosopher

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: Greece
  • Born: 384 BCE
  • Died: 322 BCE

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the Macedonian city of Stagirus, in 384 BCE. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, whereafter Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and government – and constitute the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip of Macedon, tutored Alexander the Great between 356 and 323 BCE. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "Aristotle was the first genuine scientist in history ... [and] every scientist is in his debt."

Teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

Hope is a waking dream.

The secret to humor is surprise.

Bad men are full of repentance.

Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.

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.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.

Hope is the dream of a waking man.

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

Wit is educated insolence.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.

For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.

Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.

Change in all things is sweet.

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.

He who can be, and therefore is, another's, and he who participates in reason enough to apprehend, but not to have, is a slave by nature.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

We make war that we may live in peace.

The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

He who hath many friends hath none.

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.

Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.

It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.

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.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals separated from law and justice he is the worst.

Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.

Nature does nothing in vain.

Man is by nature a political animal.

A friend to all is a friend to none.

Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.

Friendship is essentially a partnership.

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.

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

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.

Education is the best provision for old age.

The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.