Greek philosopher (384 B.C. - 322 B.C.)
The instinct of imitation is implanted in man from childhood, one difference between him and other animals being that he is the most imitative of creatures; and through imitation he learns his earliest lessons.
ARISTOTLE
Poetics
By plot, I here mean the arrangement of the incidents.
ARISTOTLE
Poetics
Concerning things which exist or will exist inevitably, or which cannot possibly exist or take place, no counsel can be given.
ARISTOTLE
Rhetoric
Now there are two ways in which fire outside the body can, as we see, come to an end, namely, exhaustion and extinction. By exhaustion we mean that termination which is produced by the fire itself; by extinction, that which is produced by the contraries of fire.
ARISTOTLE
On Youth & Old Age, Life & Death
Kings ought to differ from their subjects, not in kind, but in perfection.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
A citizen is a constituent part of a whole or system, which invests him with powers and qualifies him for functions, for which, in his individual capacity, he is totally unfit; and independently of which system, he might subsist indeed as a solitary savage, but could never attain that improved and happy state to which his progressive nature invariably tends.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of all things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed.
ARISTOTLE
Metaphysics
The evil fortune of the living in no way affects the dead.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Happiness consists in the consciousness of a life in which the highest Virtue is actively manifested.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Men fancy that because doing wrong is in their own power, therefore to be just is easy. But it is not so: to lie with one's neighbour's wife, and to strike some one near, and the giving with the hand the bribe ... are easy acts, and in men's own power; but to do these things with the particular disposition is neither easy nor in their power.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.
ARISTOTLE
Poetics
Polygnotus depicted men as nobler than they are, Pauson as less noble, Dionysius drew them true to life.
ARISTOTLE
Poetics
Man delights in society far more than do bees or herds.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
Beauty is the gift from God.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Dancing imitates character, emotion, and action, by rhythmical movement.
ARISTOTLE
Poetics
Now, of the various parts or faculties of the soul--whichever may be the proper term by which to designate them--the only ones with which we need now concern ourselves are those which belong to all such living things as possess not only life but animality. For, though an animal must necessarily be a living thing, living things are by no means of necessity animals; for plants live, and yet are without sensation, which is the distinctive characteristic of an animal. And the part in which is lodged that faculty of the soul in virtue of which a thing lives must also be the part in which is lodged that faculty in virtue of which we call it an animal.
ARISTOTLE
On Youth & Old Age, Life & Death
Money, or its equivalents, are essential in war as well as in peace.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
It would then be most admirably adapted to the purposes of justice, if laws properly enacted were, as far as circumstances admitted, of themselves to mark out all cases, and to abandon as few as possible to the discretion of the judge.
ARISTOTLE
Rhetoric
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
ARISTOTLE
The Nicomachean Ethics
The tragedies of most of our modern poets fail in the rendering of character; and of poets in general this is often true.
ARISTOTLE
Poetics