Quotes from Aristotle

En todo Estado es preciso distinguir dos cosas: la cantidad y la calidad de los ciudadanos. Por calidad entiendo la libertad, la riqueza, las luces, el nacimiento; por cantidad entiendo la preponderancia numérica. La calidad puede estar en una parte de los elementos políticos, y la cantidad encontrarse en otra; y así las gentes de nacimiento oscuro

Learning begins at the level of the learner.

The things about which we inquire are equal in number to the things we understand.

The end of labor is to gain leisure.

Moreover, since, in general, all those things which delight us when present usually do so also when we anticipate them or remember them, then even anger is pleasant, as Homer said in describing it as 'sweeter by far than trickling honey'.* After all, people do not feel anger for those they think beyond the reach of retaliation, nor do they feel anger (or relatively little) for those who have far more power than them.

What difference does it make whether the women rule or the rulers are ruled by the women?

The avarice of mankind is insatiable.

El cuerpo político sólo debe componerse de ciudadanos armados. En cuanto al censo, no es posible fijar la cantidad de una manera absoluta e invariable; pero debe dársele la base más ancha posible, para que el número de los que tengan parte en el gobierno sobrepuje al de los que queden excluidos de él.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit

For it is about our actions that we deliberate and inquire, and all our actions have a contingent character; hardly any of them are determined by necessity.

Pero si estos funcionarios son pocos, la institución es oligárquica; y como los comisarios no pueden ser nunca muchos, la institución pertenece esencialmente a la oligarquía.

For even if the end is the same for a single man and for a state, that of the state seems at all events something greater and more complete whether to attain or to preserve; though it is worth while to attain the end merely for one man, it is finer and more godlike to attain it for a nation or for city-states. These, then, are the ends at which our inquiry aims, since it is political science, in one sense of that term.

State comes into being for the sake of living, but it exists for the sake of living well.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light -Aristotle

Tragedy, then, is a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself, and of some amplitude; in language enriched by a variety of artistic devices appropriate to the several parts of the play; presented in the form of action, not narration; by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

But what matters for questions of virtue and vice is whether your acts are not merely voluntary but also chosen.

But we must not follow those who advise us…being mortal, [to think] of mortal things, but must, so far as we can, make ourselves immortal, and strain every nerve to live in accordance with the best thing in us; for even if it be small in bulk, much more does it in power and worth surpass everything.

And retaliation too is pleasant, because if failing at it is painful, succeeding at it is pleasant.

Une chose, quand elle n'est pas excessive, est un bien ; du moment qu'elle est plus grande qu'il ne faut, elle devient un mal.

And to the truth of this testimony is borne by what takes place in communities: because the law-givers make the individual members good men by habituation, and this is the intention certainly of every law-giver, and all who do not effect it well fail of their intent; and herein consists the difference between a good Constitution and a bad.

Honour and a good reputation are very pleasant, because the individual imagines himself a good man, and his estimation of his worth increases the more he can trust the people who are saying this about him —

Le début de l'amour, c'est toujours lorsque non seulement on est heureux de la présence de la personne qu'on chérit, mais qu'on l'aime rien que de souvenir, quand elle est absente.

absuelve y no cuando condena

Il y a trois causes qui font que l'orateur persuade son auditoire, parce qu'il y a trois causes qui déterminent notre acquiescement, en dehors des démonstrations. Ces trois causes sont : la raison, la probité et la bienveillance.