Quotes from Aristotle

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.

It is this simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

The heart is the perfection of the whole organism. Therefore the principles of the power of perception and the soul's ability to nourish itself must lie in the heart.

The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.

Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.

Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.

Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

A man is the origin of his action.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.

We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.

Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

The distinction between historian and poet is not in the one writing prose and the other verse... the one describes the thing that has been, and the other a kind of thing that might be. Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

Every science and every inquiry, and similarly every activity and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good.

The final cause, then, produces motion through being loved.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.