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Aristotle Quotes - Page 47

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Man by nature wants to know.

Man by nature wants to know.

Men, Want, Knows

Wit is educated insolence.

Inspirational, Witty, Humorous

Aristotle (1909). “The Rhetoric of Aristotle: A Translation”

What is common to many is least taken care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than what they possess in common with others.

Taken, Men, Care

At first he who invented any art that went beyond the common perceptions of man was naturally admired by men, not only because there was something useful in the inventions, but because he was thought wise and superior to the rest. But as more arts were invented, and some were directed to the necessities of life, others to its recreation, the inventors of the latter were always regarded as wiser than the inventors of the former, because their branches of knowledge did not aim at utility.

Wise, Art, Knowledge

Aristotle (2016). “Pocket Aristotle”, p.114, Simon and Schuster

If, then, there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake (everything else being desired for the sake of this), and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something else (for at that rate the process would go on to infinity, so that our desire would be empty and vain), clearly this must be the good and the chief good.

Desire, Would Be, Goes On

Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1729, Princeton University Press

Even if you must have regard to wealth, in order to secure leisure, yet it is surely a bad thing that the greatest offices, such as those of kings and generals, should be bought. The law which allows this abuse makes wealth of more account than virtue, and the whole state becomes avaricious.

Kings, Order, Law

Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.268, Simon and Schuster

Conscientious and careful physicians allocate causes of disease to natural laws, while the ablest scientists go back to medicine for their first principles.

Science, Law, Medicine

For this reason poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history.

Philosophical, Historical, Serious

'Poetics' ch. 9, 1451b

While those whom devotion to abstract discussions has rendered unobservant of the facts are too ready to dogmatize on the basis of a few observations.

Facts, Devotion, Abstract

On Generation and Corruption Book I, Chapter II

Again, the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.

Principles, Males, Female

Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.232, Simon and Schuster

That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal.

Distance, Goal, Half

"Physics". Book by Aristotle (VI:9, 239b10), circa 340 BC.

But obviously a state which becomes progressively more and more of a unity will cease to be a state at all. Plurality of numbers is natural in a state; and the farther it moves away from plurality towards unity, the less of a state it becomes and the more a household, and the household in turn an individual.

Moving, Numbers, Unity

My lectures are published and not published; they will be intelligible to those who heard them, and to none beside.

Lectures, Heard

Letter to Alexander the Great. "History of the Inductive Sciences". Book by William Whewell. Chapter 2, Section 2, 1837.

Nor was civil society founded merely to preserve the lives of its members; but that they might live well: for otherwise a state might be composed of slaves, or the animal creation... nor is it an alliance mutually to defend each other from injuries, or for a commercial intercourse. But whosoever endeavors to establish wholesome laws in a state, attends to the virtues and vices of each individual who composes it; from whence it is evident, that the first care of him who would found a city, truly deserving that name, and not nominally so, must be to have his citizens virtuous.

Animal, Law, Cities

"I was not alone when I was in Goofy hell"

Creativity, Goofy, Hell

Just as a royal rule, if not a mere name, must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a well-constituted form; oligarchy is little better, for it is a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.

Kings, Names, Government

Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.299, Simon and Schuster

So the good has been well explained as that at which all things aim.

Aim, Wells, All Things

'Nicomachean Ethics' bk. 1, opening sentence

So we must lay it down that the association which is a state exists not for the purpose of living together but for the sake of noble actions. Those who contribute most to this kind of association are for that very reason entitled to a larger share in the state than those who, though they may be equal or even superior in free birth and in family, are inferior in the virtue that belongs to a citizen. Similarly they are entitled to a larger share than those who are superior in riches but inferior in virtue.

Together, Purpose, Noble

[the virtues] cannot exist without Prudence. A proof of this is that everyone, even at the present day, in defining Virtue, after saying what disposition it is [i.e. moral virtue] and specifying the things with which it is concerned, adds that it is a disposition determined by the right principle; and the right principle is the principle determined by Prudence.

Defining, Principles, Add

The same things are best both for individuals and for states, and these are the things which the legislator ought to implant in the minds of his citizens.

Education, Mind, Citizens

Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.383, Simon and Schuster

All men desire by nature to know.

Men, Desire, Awareness

To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute.

Party, Giving, Decision

Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.169, Simon and Schuster

The goodness or badness, justice or injustice, of laws varies of necessity with the constitution of states. This, however, is clear, that the laws must be adapted to the constitutions. But if so, true forms of government will of necessity have just laws, and perverted forms of government will have unjust laws.

Government, Law, Justice

Aristotle, Stephen Everson (1996). “Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens”, p.78, Cambridge University Press

So it is clear that the search for what is just is a search for the mean; for the law is the mean.

Mean, Law, Politics

Now what is just and right is to be interpreted in the sense of 'what is equal'; and that which is right in the sense of being equal is to be considered with reference to the advantage of the state, and the common good of the citizens. And a citizen is one who shares in governing and being governed. He differs under different forms of government, but in the best state he is one who is able and willing to be governed and to govern with a view to the life of virtue.

Government, Views, Law

Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.106, Aristotle

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