ARISTOTLE QUOTES VI

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

Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: freedom


There are, then, three states of mind ... two vices--that of excess, and that of defect; and one virtue--the mean; and all these are in a certain sense opposed to one another; for the extremes are not only opposed to the mean, but also to one another; and the mean is opposed to the extremes.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics


He then alone will strictly be called brave who is fearless of a noble death, and of all such chances as come upon us with sudden death in their train.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: courage


Bad men are full of repentance.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: repentance


Happiness is a thing which calls for honor rather than for praise.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: happiness


Wealth is clearly not the absolute good of which we are in search, for it is a utility, and only desirable as a means.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: wealth


Once dialogue had come in, Nature herself discovered the appropriate measure. For the iambic is, of all measures, the most colloquial.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


Tragedy--as also Comedy--was at first mere improvisation.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


Novices in the art attain to finish of diction and precision of portraiture before they can construct the plot.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: writing


Change in all things is sweet.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: change


Irrational passions would seem to be as much a part of human nature as is reason.

ARISTOTLE

Nichomachean Ethics

Tags: passion


A statement is persuasive and credible either because it is directly self-evident or because it appears to be proved from other statements that are so. In either case it is persuasive because there is somebody whom it persuades.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


To some writers, nothing appears of so much consequence as the skillful regulation of property; because it is this much coveted object that gives birth to most disputes and most seditions.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: property


Thus, then ... are the three differences which distinguish artistic imitation: the medium, the objects, and the manner.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: art


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

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: youth


It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: desire


The law itself is accused of iniquity, and impeached, like the orators of Athens when they have persuaded the assembly to pass unjust decrees.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: law


For the medium being the same, and the objects the same, the poet may imitate by narration--in which case he can either take another personality as Homer does, or speak in his own person, unchanged--or he may represent all his characters as living and moving before us.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: poetry


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


Were part of the human race to be arrayed in that splendor of beauty which beams from the statues of gods, universal consent would acknowledge the rest of mankind naturally formed to be their slaves.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: beauty