Aristotle quotes are still relevant and insightful today. He is considered one of the most important and influential thinkers in history.
PAGE CONTENT:
- Aristotle Short Biography
- Aristotle’s philosophy
- 21 Inspiring Aristotle quotes of Wisdom
- 11 Aristotle quotes on education
- 11 Aristotle quotes on Happiness
- 7 Aristotle quotes on Life
- 9 Aristotle quotes on politics
- 2 Aristotle quotes on excellence
Aristotle’s life and times
Aristotle was born in 384 BC in the city of Stagira, in northern Greece. His father, Nicomachus, was a physician who served the court of King Amyntas of Macedon.
When Aristotle was a young boy, his father died, and he was sent to live with his uncle, Proxenus, in Athens. There he studied at the Academy of Plato, the most famous philosophical school of the time. After the death of Plato in 347 BC, Aristotle left the Academy and opened his own school, the Lyceum.
Aristotle was a prolific writer. His works include treatises on physics, astronomy, zoology, logic, rhetoric, and politics. He also wrote dialogues, including the famous ones with his student, Alexander the Great.
Aristotle’s philosophy is based on the idea that everything in the world can be classified into one of four categories: matter, form, privation, and purpose. According to this philosophy, matter is the stuff of which the world is made, form is the shape that matter takes, privation is the lack of form, and purpose is the end that matter is striving towards.
Aristotle’s philosophy was very influential in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Many of his ideas were adapted by the Christian thinkers of these periods, including Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine.
Aristotle’s philosophy
Aristotle‘s philosophy is one of the most famous and influential in the Western world. He was one of the first philosophers to systematize knowledge, and his theories on topics such as ethics, metaphysics, and political philosophy have been hugely influential ever since.
His philosophy is based on the idea that everything in the world can be explained using reason, and he thought that the best way to achieve happiness in life was by using reason to live in accordance with nature.
Inspiring Aristotle quotes of Wisdom
- “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
2. “Through discipline comes freedom.”
3. “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
4. “Hope is a waking dream.”
5. “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.”
6. “Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something”
7. “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
8. “He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
9. “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
10. “Quality is not an act, it is a habit.”
11. “We become brave by doing brave acts.”
12. “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.”
13. “All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.”
14. “Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.”
15. “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
16. “The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.”
17. “All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.”
18. “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”
19. “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
20. “Bad people…are in conflict with themselves; they desire one thing and will another, like the incontinent who choose harmful pleasures instead of what they themselves believe to be good.”
21. “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
Aristotle quotes on education
22. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
23. “The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.”
24. “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.”
25. “Learning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain.”
26. “Wit is educated insolence.”
27. “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
28. “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
29. “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”
30. “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”
31. “All men by nature desire to know.”
32. “Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.”
Aristotle quotes on Happiness
33. “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
34. “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.”
35. “Happiness is a quality of the soul…not a function of one’s material circumstances.”
36. “Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
37. “Happiness is a state of activity.”
38. “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”
39. “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”
40. “Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.”
41. “Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient.”
42. “…happiness does not consist in amusement. In fact, it would be strange if our end were amusement, and if we were to labor and suffer hardships all our life long merely to amuse ourselves…. The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement….”
43. “Happiness does not lie in amusement; it would be strange if one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one’s life in order to amuse oneself”
Aristotle quotes on Life
44. “The energy of the mind is the essence of life.”
45. “Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.”
46. “Whatever lies within our power to do lies also within our power not to do.”
47. “Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form, but with regard to their mode of life.”
48. “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.”
49. “Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.”
50. “Those who cannot bravely face danger are the slaves of their attackers.”
Aristotle quotes on politics
51. “It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.”
52. “The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.”
53. “He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled”
54. “All Earthquakes and Disasters are warnings; there’s too much corruption in the world”
55. “Man is by nature a political animal.”
56. “We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.”
57. “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.”
58. “Democracy arose from men’s thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.”
59. “The Law is Reason free from Passion.”
Aristotle quotes on excellence
60. “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.”
61. “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”