ARISTOTLE QUOTES VI

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

For the doubt is, whether it is possible for a man really to be wronged with his own consent, or not possible, but the act must always be done to him against his will, just as the doing a wrong must always be intentional; and again, whether the being wronged is wholly this way or that, (as the doing wrong is entirely a voluntary act,) or one kind of it is voluntary and another kind involuntary. And similarly in the case of being justly dealt with: for all just dealing is voluntary, so that it is reasonable there should be set opposite to both cases, (i.e. both the being wrongly and the being fairly treated,) the being so willingly or unwillingly. But it would seem a strange thing, in the case of being justly dealt with likewise, if it is wholly with one's consent; for some persons are justly dealt with without their consent.

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


Happiness is a thing which calls for honor rather than for praise.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: happiness


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


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

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: society


Man is armed with craft and courage, which, untamed by justice, he will most wickedly pervert, and become at once the most impious and the fiercest of monsters.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: monsters


Once dialogue had come in, Nature herself discovered the appropriate measure. For the iambic is, of all measures, the most colloquial.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


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


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


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


Change in all things is sweet.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: change


Every political society forms, it is plain, a sort of community or partnership, instituted for the benefit of the partners. Utility is the end and aim of every such institution; and the greatest and most extensive utility is the aim of that great association, comprehending all the rest, and known by the name of a commonwealth.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: society


It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: desire


Thus, then ... are the three differences which distinguish artistic imitation: the medium, the objects, and the manner.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: art


To some writers, nothing appears of so much consequence as the skillful regulation of property; because it is this much coveted object that gives birth to most disputes and most seditions.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: property


Tragedy--as also Comedy--was at first mere improvisation.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


Be studious to preserve your reputation; if that be once lost, you are like a cancelled writing, of no value, and at best you do but survive your own funeral.

ARISTOTLE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: reputation


For the medium being the same, and the objects the same, the poet may imitate by narration--in which case he can either take another personality as Homer does, or speak in his own person, unchanged--or he may represent all his characters as living and moving before us.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: poetry


The law itself is accused of iniquity, and impeached, like the orators of Athens when they have persuaded the assembly to pass unjust decrees.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: law


Were part of the human race to be arrayed in that splendor of beauty which beams from the statues of gods, universal consent would acknowledge the rest of mankind naturally formed to be their slaves.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: beauty