Looking for motivational Quotes by Aristotle? We have compiled some famous Aristotle quotes that will inspire you to do better in life and also help you to think logically.
Who is Aristotle:
Aristotle was a renowned ancient Greek philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of all time. He lived from 384-322 BCE. Aristotle is considered one of the greatest philosophers of all time, and his work has had a significant influence on Western philosophy. He was a student of Plato, and his writings covered topics such as ethics, politics, metaphysics, biology, and more. He also made notable contributions to the fields of natural science.
Here are some interesting facts about him:
- Aristotle was a student of Plato, and later became the tutor of Alexander the Great.
- He founded the Peripatetic School of Philosophy, which was named after the peripatetic (covered walks) in the Lyceum where he taught his students.
- Aristotle wrote over 150 philosophical treatises, covering a wide range of subjects including politics, ethics, metaphysics, and biology.
- He believed in the concept of the “golden mean,” which suggests that the best way to live is to find a balance between excess and deficiency.
- He was the first to classify living organisms into different categories, and his work on motion laid the foundation for the development of the law of inertia.
Aristotle’s work has had an everlasting effect on Western thought, and his ideas continue to be studied and discussed by philosophers today.
Famous Aristotle Quotes
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
A constitution is the arrangement of magistrates in a state.
Anyone can become angry — that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way — this is not easy.
A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees others.
There is no genius without some touch of madness.
Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim, and end of human existence.
A character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.
The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.
Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.
Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.
Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.
It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.
He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
Life in accordance with intellect is best and pleasantest, since this, more than anything else, constitutes humanity.
The many are more incorruptible than the few; they are like the greater quantity of water which is less easily corrupted than a little.
It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.
Equality consists of the same treatment of similar persons.
A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because life is sweet and they are growing.
He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
Every rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
Learning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain.
The quality of life is determined by its activities.
Life is a gift of nature but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom.
To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.
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.
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
Aristotle Quotes On Education
Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.
The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.
Learning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain.
Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.
Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something
To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.
Aristotle Quotes On Excellence
These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions … The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life.
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.
The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
Anyone who has no need of anybody but himself is either a beast or a God.
Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.
He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.
It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.
Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something.
To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
I have gained this by philosophy; I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law.
It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.
All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.
Aristotle Quotes On Friendship
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.
The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.
Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.
My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
Friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror, they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.
The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Inspirational Quotes by Aristotle
Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of time and is forgotten through the lapse of time.
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way… you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, and brave by performing brave actions.
To be conscious of what we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
What is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.
Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.
The virtue of justice consists of moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
It is possible to fail in many ways… while to succeed is possible only in one way.
We acquire a particular quality by acting in a particular way.
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.
He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.
To lead an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd.
Identity exists where the Complication and Unravelling are the same.
Yet ambition and avarice, almost more than any other passions, are the motives of the crime.
Men were first led to the study of philosophy, as indeed they are today, by wonder.
Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason, the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.
For the laughable is a sort of error and ugliness that is not painful and destructive, just as, evidently, a laughable mask is something ugly and distorted without pain.
The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.
Whatsoever that be within us that feels, thinks, desires, and animates, is something celestial, divine, and, consequently, imperishable.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
Whenever a reasonable explanation comes to sight as to why a thing appears to be but is not true, this makes for greater trust in the truth.
None of the moral virtues is engendered in us by nature, for no natural property can be altered by habit.
The simply complete thing, then, is that which is always chosen for itself and never on account of something else.
A well-constructed plot should, therefore, be single in its issue, rather than double as some maintain. The change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.