Quotes from Aristotle

Why is it that all men who are outstanding in philosophy, poetry or the arts are melancholic?

The specific excellence of verbal expression in poetry is to be clear without being low.

Poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him.

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

Man is by nature a political animal.

Those that deem politics beneath their dignity are doomed to be governed by those of lesser talents.

The student of politics therefore as well as the psychologist must study the nature of the soul.

Those who have been eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry, and the arts have all had tendencies toward melancholia.

Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.

Man is by nature a civic animal.

We are what we do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.

We become just by performing just actions temperate by performing temperate actions brave by performing brave actions.

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

To give away money is an easy matter and in any man's power. But to decide to whom to give it and how large and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in every man's power nor an easy matter.

Reason is a light that God has kindled in the soul.

Beauty is a gift of God.

One thing alone not even God can do,To make undone whatever hath been done.

Either a beast or a god.

As often as we do good, we offer sacrifices to God.

God has many names though He is only one Being.

Friends are much better tried in bad fortune than in good.

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.

It is better for a city to be governed by a good man than by good laws.

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.