Aristotle

Without friends no one would choose to live.
Aristotle

The two qualities which chiefly inspire regard and affection [Are] that a thing is your own and that it is your only one.
Aristotle

For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.
Aristotle

Beauty depends on size as well as symmetry. No very small animal can be beautiful, for looking at it takes so small a portion of time that the impression of it will be confused. Nor can any very large one, for a whole view of it cannot be had at once, and so there will be no unity and completeness.
Aristotle

Cruel is the strife of brothers.
Aristotle

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
Aristotle

It is easy to fly into a passion... anybody can do that, but to be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right time and in the right way… that is not easy.
Aristotle

The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.
Aristotle

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.
Aristotle

To the query, ''What is a friend?'' his reply was ''A single soul dwelling in two bodies.''
Aristotle

Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.
Aristotle

The true end of tragedy is to purify the passions.
Aristotle

Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.
Aristotle

It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible.
Aristotle

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
Aristotle

...for the lesser evil is reckoned a good in comparison with the greater evil, since the lesser evil is rather to be chosen than the greater...
Aristotle

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
Aristotle

All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
Aristotle

Every rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal.
Aristotle

We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.
Aristotle

Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy.
Aristotle

Since the things we do determine the character of life, no blessed person can become unhappy. For he will never do those things which are hateful and petty.
Aristotle

For as the interposition of a rivulet, however small, will occasion the line of the phalanx to fluctuate, so any trifling disagreement will be the cause of seditions; but they will not so soon flow from anything else as from the disagreement between virtue and vice, and next to that between poverty and riches.
Aristotle

The most perfect political community must be amongst those who are in the middle rank, and those states are best instituted wherein these are a larger and more respectable part, if possible, than both the other; or, if that cannot be, at least than either of them separate.
Aristotle

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
Aristotle

It was through the feeling of wonder that men now and at first began to philosophize.
Aristotle

Either a beast or a god.
Aristotle

Melancholy men are of all others the most witty.
Aristotle

Memory is the scribe of the soul.
Aristotle

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.
Aristotle

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.
Aristotle

To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of out own existence.
Aristotle

Praise invariably implies a reference to a higher standard.
Aristotle

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
Aristotle

Wicked men obey for fear, but the good for love.
Aristotle

They [Young People] have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things -- and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning -- all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else.
Aristotle

In revolutions the occasions may be trifling but great interest are at stake.
Aristotle

This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half.
Aristotle

No one will dare maintain that it is better to do injustice than to bear it.
Aristotle

A friend to all is a friend to none.
Aristotle

So it is naturally with the male and the female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind.
Aristotle

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
Aristotle

All men by nature desire knowledge.
Aristotle

We make war that we may live in peace.
Aristotle

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.
Aristotle

It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
Aristotle

happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it
Aristotle

Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.
Aristotle

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
Aristotle

We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.
Aristotle