Quotes from Aristotle

The truth is that, just as in the other imitative arts one imitation is always of one thing, so in poetry the story, as an imitation of action, must represent one action, a complete whole, with its several incidents so closely connected that the transposal or withdrawal of any one of them will disjoin and dislocate the whole. For that which makes no perceptible difference by its presence or absence is no real part of the whole.

si el alma se encuentra en todo cuerpo dotado de sensibilidad y si además suponemos que el alma es un cuerpo, necesariamente habrá dos cuerpos en el mismo lugar.

To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.

Some [jests] are becoming to a gentleman, others are not; see that you choose such as become you . Irony better befits a gentleman than buffoonery; the ironical man jokes to amuse himself, the buffoon to amuse other people.

If, however, the poetic end might have been as well or better attained without sacrifice of technical correctness in such matters, the impossibility is not to be justified, since the description should be, if it can, entirely free from error.

And therefore, if the earlier forms of society are natural, so is the state, for it is the end of them, and the [completed] nature is the end. For what each thing is when fully developed, we call its nature, whether we are speaking of a man, a horse, or a family. Besides, the final cause and end of a thing is the best, and to be self-sufficing is the end and the best.

The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.

For we do not think that we know a thing until we are acquainted with its primary conditions or first principles, and have carried our analysis as far as its simplest elements. Plainly therefore in the science of Nature, (15) as in other branches of study, our first task will be to try to determine what relates to its principles.

for the same things are not 'knowable relatively to us' and 'knowable' without qualification. So in the present inquiry we must follow this method and advance from what is more obscure by nature, (20) but clearer to us, towards what is more clear and more knowable by nature.

The law is reason unaffected by desire.

those who inquire into the number of existents: for they inquire whether the ultimate constituents of existing things are one or many, and if many, whether a finite or an infinite plurality.

The life of the mind is only open to rich people.

Excellence, much labored for by the race of mortals.

a man investigating principles cannot argue with one who denies their existence.

For this alone is lacking even to God, to make undone the things that have once been done. (Quoting Agathon)

A good style must, first of all, be clear.

Life is a gift of nature but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom.

We laugh at inferior or ugly individuals, because we feel a joy at feeling superior to them.

Bad men, who are to weak for toil, are in love with death

Well-drawn laws should themselves define all the points they possibly can and leave as few as may be to the decision of the judges.

And it will often happen that a man with wealth in the form of coined money will not have enough to eat; and what a ridiculous kind of wealth is that which even in abundance will not save you from dying with hunger!

For none of the others can exist independently: substance alone is independent: for everything is predicated of substance as subject.

Men cling to life even at the cost of enduring great misfortune.

For the various necessaries of life are not easily carried about, and hence men agreed to employ in their dealings with each other something which was intrinsically useful and easily applicable to the purposes of life, for example, iron, silver, and the like. Of this the value was at first measured by size and weight, but in process of time they put a stamp upon it, to save the trouble of weighing and to mark the value.