ARISTOTLE QUOTES VI

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

Change in all things is sweet.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: change


Nor does the argument about the contrary seem to be well urged. It does not follow, they say, because pain is an evil, that pleasure is a good; for the opposite to evil may be not a good, but some other evil, and both evil and good may stand opposed to something which is neither one nor the other.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics


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

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: art


Tragedy advanced by slow degrees; each new element that showed itself was in turn developed. Having passed through many changes, it found its natural form, and there it stopped.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


The wickedness of man is boundless; it seems at first as if a trifle would content him, but his passions invigorate by gratification; always indulged, always craving, and continually preying on him who feeds him.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: greed


Be studious to preserve your reputation; if that be once lost, you are like a cancelled writing, of no value, and at best you do but survive your own funeral.

ARISTOTLE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: reputation


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

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: youth


Our statements will be adequate if made with as much clearness as the matter allows.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics


Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


He, therefore, who first collected societies, was the greatest benefactor of mankind.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: society


We ought to be able to persuade on opposite sides of a question; as also we ought in the case of arguing by syllogism: not that we should practice both, for it is not right to persuade to what is bad; but in order that the bearing of the case may not escape us, and that when another makes an unfair use of these reasonings, we may be able to solve them.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions--that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


The precepts of the law may be comprehended under these three points: to live honestly, to hurt no man willfully, and to render every man his due carefully.

ARISTOTLE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: law


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


For in man, and in man alone, owing to is erect attitude, the upper part of the body is turned toward the upper part of the universe; while in other animals it is turned neither to this nor to the lower aspects, but in a direction midway between the two.

ARISTOTLE

On Youth & Old Age, Life & Death

Tags: men


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

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


Those who assert that the mathematical sciences say nothing of the beautiful or the good are in error. For these sciences say and prove a great deal about them; if they do not expressly mention them, but prove attributes which are their results or definitions, it is not true that they tell us nothing about them. The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree.

ARISTOTLE

Metaphysics

Tags: math


The majority of mankind would seem to be beguiled into error by pleasure, which, not being really a good, yet seems to be so. So that they indiscriminately choose as good whatsoever gives them pleasure, while they avoid all pain alike as evil.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: pleasure


Government and subjection, then, are things useful and necessary; they prevail everywhere, in animated as well as in brute matter; from their first origin, some natures are formed to command, and others to obey; the kinds of government and subjection varying with the differences of their objects, but all equally useful for their respective ends.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: government


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

ARISTOTLE

Poetics