ARISTOTLE QUOTES V

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

For the roots of plants are analogous to what is called the mouth in an animal, being the organ by which food is admitted.

ARISTOTLE

On Youth & Old Age, Life & Death


That which is a common concern is very generally neglected. The energies of man are excited by that which depends on himself alone, and of which he only is to reap the whole profit or glory.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: selfishness


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


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


Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: friends


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

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics


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


Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: freedom


There are, then, three states of mind ... two vices--that of excess, and that of defect; and one virtue--the mean; and all these are in a certain sense opposed to one another; for the extremes are not only opposed to the mean, but also to one another; and the mean is opposed to the extremes.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics


In the case of some people, not even if we had the most accurate scientific knowledge, would it be easy to persuade them were we to address them through the medium of that knowledge; for a scientific discourse, it is the privilege of education to appreciate, and it is impossible that this should extend to the multitude.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


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

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: youth


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


Thought is required wherever a statement is proved, or, it may be, a general truth enunciated.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: thought


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


Whoever, therefore, is unfit to live in a commonwealth, is above or below humanity.

ARISTOTLE

Politics


Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality--namely, Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Song.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: writing


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

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: society


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


He then alone will strictly be called brave who is fearless of a noble death, and of all such chances as come upon us with sudden death in their train.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: courage