Aristotle, the ancient polymath is decidedly one of the most prominent figures in ancient Greek. His sayings are invaluable for generations to come. Aristotle’s huge oeuvre is a manifestation of the massive influence that he exerts in the fields of not just philosophy, but also ethics, political theory, metaphysics, logic, aesthetics and rhetoric. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states that humans are rational and social animals who seek to “live well”. The polymath also argued that the man who possesses excellence of character would have a tendency to do the right thing at the right time and in the right way. Thus, he put forward a system of ethics to achieve eudaimonia, commonly translated as happiness or “human flourishing”.
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Most Famous Aristotle Quotes
- “You will never do anything in the world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour.”
- “The energy of the mind is the essence of life.”
- “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
- “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour.”
- “The most important relationship we can all have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. To know yourself, you must spend time with yourself, you must not be afraid to be alone. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
- “What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.”
- “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
- “Hope is a waking dream.”
- “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
- “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
- “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”
- “Life is a gift of nature but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom.”
- “Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because life is sweet and they are growing.”
- “Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.”
- “True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.”
- “It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.”
- “To perceive is to suffer.”
- “He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
- “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”
- “Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.”
- “The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.”
- “Bad people…are in conflict with themselves; they desire one thing and will another, like the incontinent who choose harmful pleasures instead of what they themselves believe to be good.”
- “All persons ought to endeavour to follow what is right, and not what is established.”
- “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
- “The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.”
- “The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.”
- “Nature does nothing in vain.”
- “One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
- “Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.”
- “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
- “The self-indulgent man craves for all pleasant things… and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else.”
- “The pleasures arising from thinking and learning will make us think and learn all the more.”
- “The law is reason, free from passion.”
- “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.”
- “It’s the fastest who gets paid, and it’s the fastest who gets laid.”
- “Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.”
- “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.”
- “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 well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.”
- “Justice is the loveliest and health is the best, but the sweetest to obtain is the heart’s desire.”
- “The greatest crimes are not those committed for the sake of necessity but those committed for the sake of superfluity. One does not become a tyrant to avoid exposure to the cold.”
- “The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order symmetry and limitations, and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.”
- “It is well said, then, that it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced, and by doing temperate acts the temperate man; without doing these no one would have even a prospect of becoming good.”
- “Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.”
- “It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.”
- “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.”
- “The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.”
- “men cannot know each other till they have ‘eaten salt together’;”
- “Anything whose presence or absence makes no discernible difference is no essential part of the whole.”
- “How can a man know what is good or best for him, and yet chronically fail to act upon his knowledge
Aristotle Excellence Quotes
- “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
- “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
- “As it is not one swallow or a fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy.”
- “There is an ideal of excellence for any particular craft or occupation; similarly there must be an excellent that we can achieve as human beings. That is, we can live our lives as a whole in such a way that they can be judged not just as excellent in this respect or in that occupation, but as excellent, period. Only when we develop our truly human capacities sufficiently to achieve this human excellent will we have lives blessed with happiness.”
- “The virtues [moral excellence] therefore are engendered in us neither by nature nor yet in violation of nature; nature gives us the capacity to receive them, and this capacity is brought to maturity by habit.”
- “Excellence or virtue in a man will be the disposition which renders him a good man and also which will cause him to perform his function well.”
- “The Good of man is the active exercise of his soul’s faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue, or if there be several human excellences or virtues, in conformity with the best and most perfect among them.”
- “The excellence of a thing is related to its proper function.”
- “To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.”
- We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence. But they hesitate, waiting for the other fellow to make the first move and he, in turn, waits for you.
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Also Read:
- 40 Most Noteworthy Aristotle Quotes on Education
- 40 Best Immanuel Kant Quotes
- 10 Quotes to get you through the toughest days!
- Philosophy of Stoicism
- 4 Cardinal Virtues
Damayanti Dubey is a final year English major at Loreto College, Kolkata. She is a writer by passion and loves to indulge in languages, especially English, Bengali, and Urdu. She aims at exploring all of their intricacies and nuances. Damayanti is a disciple of Padma Bhushan Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty and is a national scholar of Indian classical music. She has always believed that a sound mind, free from the clutches of regressive and negative thoughts is the key to living a healthy life and makes efforts to promote mental wellness through the power of her words.
Damayanti believes in thinking beyond boundaries.