200+ Best Aristotle Motivational And Inspirational Quotes You Need To Know

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy within the Lyceum and the wider Aristotelian tradition.

Aristotle Motivational And Inspirational Quotes

1. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
2. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle
3. “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” – Aristotle
4. “One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.” – Aristotle
5. “The law is reason, free from passion.” – Aristotle
6. “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” – Aristotle
7. “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” – Aristotle
8. “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” – Aristotle
9. “Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” – Aristotle
10. “Knowing what is right does not make a sagacious man.” – Aristotle
11. “Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be, and similarly everything that depends on art or any rational cause, and especially if it depends on the best of all causes.” – Aristotle
12. “The virtue as the art consecrates itself constantly to what’s difficult to do, and the harder the task, the shinier the success.” – Aristotle
13. “Those who have been eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry, and the arts have all had tendencies toward melancholia.” – Aristotle
14. “Consider pleasures as they depart, not as they come.” – Aristotle
15. “But the virtues we get by first exercising them, as also happens in the case of the arts as well.” – Aristotle
16. “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyre players by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” – Aristotle
17. “All art, all education, can be merely a supplement to nature.” – Aristotle
18. “The purpose of art is to represent the meaning of things. This represents the true reality, not external aspects.” – Aristotle
19. “It is clear that those constitutions which aim at the common good are right, as being in accord with absolute justice; while those which aim only at the good of the rulers are wrong.” – Aristotle
20. “People become house builders through building houses, harp players through playing the harp. We grow to be just by doing things which are just.” – Aristotle
21. “Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.” – Aristotle
22. “They who are to be judges must also be performers.” – Aristotle
23. “When couples have children in excess, let abortion be procured before sense and life have begun; what may or may not be lawfully done in these cases depends on the question of life and sensation.” – Aristotle
24. “Equity is that idea of justice which contravenes the written law.” – Aristotle
25. “To be always seeking after the useful does not become free and exalted souls.” – Aristotle
26. “And, speaking generally, passion seems not to be amenable to reason, but only to force.” – Aristotle
27. “Be a free thinker and don’t accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.” – Aristotle
28. “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” – Aristotle
29. “The most important relationship we can all have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. To know yourself, you must spend time with yourself, you must not be afraid to be alone. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle
30. “Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.” – Aristotle
31. “A fool contributes nothing worth hearing and takes offense at everything.” – Aristotle
32. “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” – Aristotle
33. “Happiness is a quality of the soul…not a function of one’s material circumstances.” – Aristotle
34. “Life is only meaningful when we are striving for a goal .” – Aristotle
35. “Character is revealed through action.” – Aristotle
36. “Only armed people can be truly free. Only unarmed people can ever be enslaved.” – Aristotle
37. “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” – Aristotle
38. “Our problem is not that we aim too high and miss, but that we aim too low and hit.” – Aristotle
39. “We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference.” – Aristotle
40. “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle
41. “Think as the wise men think, but talk like the simple people do.” – Aristotle
42. “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.” – Aristotle
43. “I count him as a braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.” – Aristotle
44. “The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.” – Aristotle
45. “Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.” – Aristotle
46. “It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.” – Aristotle
47. “It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.” – Aristotle
48. “Just as at the Olympic games it is not the most handsome or strongest men who are crowned with a victory but the successful competitors, so in life, it is those who act rightly who carry off all the prizes and rewards.” – Aristotle
49. “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” – Aristotle
50. “The incontinent man does things he does not think he ought to do.” – Aristotle
51. “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.” – Aristotle
52. “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle
53. “Art takes nature as its model.” – Aristotle
54. “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.” – Aristotle
55. “Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.” – Aristotle
56. “With respect to the requirement of art, the probable impossible is always preferable to the improbable possible.” – Aristotle
57. “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle
58. “And so long as they were at war, their power was preserved, but when they had attained empire they fell, for in the arts of peace they knew nothing, and had never engaged in any employment higher than war.” – Aristotle
59. “Art completes what nature cannot bring to finish. The artist gives us knowledge of nature’s unrealized ends.” – Aristotle
60. “Art is a higher type of knowledge than experience.” – Aristotle
61. “It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.” – Aristotle
62. “Hippodamus, son of Euryphon, a native of Miletus, invented the art of planning and laid out the street plan of Piraeus.” – Aristotle
63. “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.” – Aristotle
64. “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.” – Aristotle
65. “Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies.” – Aristotle
66. “The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.” – Aristotle
67. “All art is concerned with coming into being; for it is concerned neither with things that are, or come into being by necessity, nor with things that do so in accordance with nature.” – Aristotle
68. “Why is it that all those who have become eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry, or the arts are clearly of an atrabilious temperament and some of them to such an extent as to be affected by diseases caused by black bile?” – Aristotle
69. “A good style must have an air of novelty, at the same time concealing its art.” – Aristotle
70. “Why is it that all men who are outstanding in philosophy, poetry or the arts are melancholic?” – Aristotle
71. “If the art of ship-building were in the wood, ships would exist by nature.” – Aristotle
72. “In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle
73. “If one way is better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.” – Aristotle
74. “It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.” – Aristotle
75. “Man is by nature a political animal.” – Aristotle
76. “It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible.” – Aristotle
77. “Thus every action must be due to one or other of seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reasoning, anger, or appetite.” – Aristotle
78. “He who sees things grow from the beginning will have the best view of them.” – Aristotle
79. “The physician heals, Nature makes well.” – Aristotle
80. “But nature flies from the infinite; for the infinite is imperfect, and nature always seeks an end.” – Aristotle
81. “All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.” – Aristotle
82. “The family is the association established by nature for the supply of men’s everyday wants.” – Aristotle
83. “Nature does nothing without a purpose. In children may be observed the traces and seeds of what will one day be settled psychological habits, though psychologically a child hardly differs for the time being from an animal.” – Aristotle
84. “We must not feel a childish disgust at the investigations of the meaner animals. For there is something marvelous in all natural things.” – Aristotle
85. “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.” – Aristotle
86. “The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.” – Aristotle
87. “Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather than universals, whereas those of history are singular.” – Aristotle
88. “Nature makes nothing incomplete, and nothing in vain.” – Aristotle
89. “Those whose days are consumed in the low pursuits of avarice, or the gaudy frivolous of fashion, unobservant of nature’s lovelinessof demarcation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form should lie.” – Aristotle
90. “For nature by the same cause, provided it remains in the same condition, always produces the same effect, so that either coming-to-be or passing-away will always result.” – Aristotle
91. “No one finds fault with defects which are the result of nature.” – Aristotle
92. “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.” – Aristotle
93. “The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.” – Aristotle
94. “To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.” – Aristotle
95. “Between friends there is no need for justice, but people who are just still need the quality of friendship; and indeed friendliness is considered to be justice in the fullest sense.” – Aristotle
96. “Teaching is the highest form of understanding.” – Aristotle
97. “We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.” – Aristotle
98. “It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.” – Aristotle
99. “The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.” – Aristotle
100. “It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.” – Aristotle
101. “Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law and without justice. If he finds himself an individual who cannot live in society, or who pretends he has need of only his own resources do not consider him as a member of humanity; he is a savage beast or a god.” – Aristotle
102. “When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.” – Aristotle
103. “For example, justice is considered to mean equality, It does mean equality- but equality for those who are equal, and not for all.” – Aristotle
104. “Justice therefore demands that no one should do more ruling than being ruled, but that all should have their turn.” – Aristotle
105. “The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.” – Aristotle
106. “The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want.” – Aristotle
107. “It would then be most admirably adapted to the purposes of justice, if laws properly enacted were, as far as circumstances admitted, of themselves to mark out all cases, and to abandon as few as possible to the discretion of the judge.” – Aristotle
108. “Justice is Equality…but equality of what?” – Aristotle
109. “It makes no difference whether a good man has defrauded a bad man, or a bad man defrauded a good man, or whether a good or bad man has committed adultery: the law can look only to the amount of damage done.” – Aristotle
110. “It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.” – Aristotle
111. “That judges of important causes should hold office for life is a questionable thing, for the mind grows old as well as the body.” – Aristotle
112. “It [Justice] is complete virtue in the fullest sense, because it is the active exercise of complete virtue; and it is complete because its possessor can exercise it in relation to another person, and not only by himself.” – Aristotle
113. “Justice is the loveliest and health is the best. but the sweetest to obtain is the heart’s desire.” – Aristotle
114. “For what one has to learn to do, we learn by doing.” – Aristotle
115. “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” – Aristotle
116. “Learning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain.” – Aristotle
117. “All men by nature desire knowledge.” – Aristotle
118. “Teachers, who educate children, deserve more honour than parents, who merely gave them birth; for the latter provided mere life, while the former ensured a good life.” – Aristotle
119. “To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.” – Aristotle
120. “Education begins at the level of the learner.” – Aristotle
121. “All learning is derived from things previously known.” – Aristotle
122. “The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.” – Aristotle
123. “To perceive is to suffer.” – Aristotle
124. “Education is the best provision for old age.” – Aristotle
125. “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.” – Aristotle
126. “The best way to teach morality is to make it a habit with children.” – Aristotle
127. “The habits we form from childhood make no small difference, but rather they make all the difference.” – Aristotle
128. “Education and morals will be found almost the whole that goes to make a good man.” – Aristotle
129. “To learn is a natural pleasure, not confined to philosophers, but common to all men.” – Aristotle
130. “Anything that we have to learn to do we learn by the actual doing of it; People become builders by building and instrumentalists by playing instruments. Similarly, we become just by performing just acts, temperate by performing temperate ones, brave by performing brave ones.” – Aristotle
     
131. “Our youth should also be educated with music and physical education.” – Aristotle
132. “Women should marry when they are about eighteen years of age, and men at seven and thirty; then they are in the prime of life, and the decline in the powers of both will coincide.” – Aristotle
133. “It is evident, then, that there is a sort of education in which parents should train their sons, not as being useful or necessary, but because it is liberal or noble.” – Aristotle
134. “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” – Aristotle
135. “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.” – Aristotle
136. “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.” – Aristotle
137. “Fortune favours the bold.” – Aristotle
138. “A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.” – Aristotle
139. “He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.” – Aristotle
140. “No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.” – Aristotle
141. “You will never do anything in the world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” – Aristotle
142. “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” – Aristotle
143. “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.” – Aristotle
144. “Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities.” – Aristotle
145. “Courage is the mother of all virtues because without it, you cannot consistently perform the others.” – Aristotle
146. “All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.” – Aristotle
147. “What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.” – Aristotle
148. “Happiness is prosperity combined with virtue.” – Aristotle
149. “Some vices miss what is right because they are deficient, others because they are excessive, in feelings or in actions, while virtue finds and chooses the mean.” – Aristotle
150. “Courage is the first virtue that makes all other virtues possible.” – Aristotle
151. “Virtue is the golden mean between two vices, the one of excess and the other of deficiency.” – Aristotle
152. “He is his own best friend and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy and is afraid of solitude.” – Aristotle
153. “A proper wife should be as obedient as a slave… The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities – a natural defectiveness.” – Aristotle
154. “Virtue means doing the right thing, in relation to the right person, at the right time, to the right extent, in the right manner, and for the right purpose. Thus, to give money away is quite a simple task, but for the act to be virtuous, the donor must give to the right person, for the right purpose, in the right amount, in the right manner, and at the right time.” – Aristotle
155. “Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.” – Aristotle
156. “Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice.” – Aristotle
157. “Happiness is the reward of virtue.” – Aristotle
158. “True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.” – Aristotle
159. “Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.” – Aristotle
160. “Modesty is hardly to be described as a virtue. It is a feeling rather than a disposition. It is a kind of fear of falling into disrepute.” – Aristotle
161. “Perhaps here we have a clue to the reason why royal rule used to exist formerly, namely the difficulty of finding enough men of outstanding virtue.” – Aristotle
162. “Definition of tragedy: A hero destroyed by the excess of his virtues” – Aristotle
163. “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
164. “Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.” – Aristotle
165. “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.” – Aristotle
166. “Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.” – Aristotle
167. “In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.” – Aristotle
168. “Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.” – Aristotle
169. “A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.” – Aristotle
170. “Democracy arose from men’s thinking that if they are equal in any respect they are equal absolutely.” – Aristotle
171. “The life which is best for men, both separately, as individuals, and in the mass, as stated, is the life which has virtue sufficiently supported by material resources to facilitate participation in the actions that virtue calls for.” – Aristotle
172. “If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.” – Aristotle
173. “Every effort therefore must be made to perpetuate prosperity. And, since that is to the advantage of the rich as well as the poor, all that accrues from the revenues should be collected into a single fund and distributed in block grants to those in need, if possible in lump sums large enough for the acquisition of a small piece of land, but if not, enough to start a business, or work in agriculture. And if that cannot be done for all, the distribution might be by tribes or some other division each in turn.” – Aristotle
174. “The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class.” – Aristotle
175. “But since there is but one aim for the entire state, it follows that education must be one and the same for all, and that the responsibility for it must be a public one, not the private affair which it now is, each man looking after his own children and teaching them privately whatever private curriculum he thinks they ought to study.” – Aristotle
176. “Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.” – Aristotle
177. “One Greek city state had a fundamental law: anyone proposing revisions to the constitution did so with a noose around his neck. If his proposal lost he was instantly hanged.” – Aristotle
178. “But obviously a state which becomes progressively more and more of a unity will cease to be a state at all. Plurality of numbers is natural in a state; and the farther it moves away from plurality towards unity, the less of a state it becomes and the more a household, and the household in turn an individual.” – Aristotle
179. “So we must lay it down that the association which is a state exists not for the purpose of living together but for the sake of noble actions. Those who contribute most to this kind of association are for that very reason entitled to a larger share in the state than those who, though they may be equal or even superior in free birth and in family, are inferior in the virtue that belongs to a citizen. Similarly they are entitled to a larger share than those who are superior in riches but inferior in virtue.” – Aristotle
180. “So it is clear that the search for what is just is a search for the mean; for the law is the mean.” – Aristotle
181. “A state is an association of similar persons whose aim is the best life possible. What is best is happiness, and to be happy is an active exercise of virtue and a complete employment of it.” – Aristotle
182. “Happiness is an activity and a complete utilization of virtue, not conditionally but absolutely.” – Aristotle
183. “If then nature makes nothing without some end in view, nothing to no purpose, it must be that nature has made all of them for the sake of man.” – Aristotle
184. “Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.” – Aristotle
185. “For suppose that every tool we had could perform its task, either at our bidding or itself perceiving the need, and if-like the statues made by Dædalus or the tripods of Hephæstus, of which the poet says that “self-moved they enter the assembly of the gods” – shuttles in a loom could fly to and fro and a plectrum play a lyre all self-moved, then master-craftsmen would have no need of servants nor masters of slaves.” – Aristotle
186. “And what has come to prevail in democracies is the very reverse of beneficial, in those, that is, which are regarded as the most democratically run. The reason for this lies in the failure properly to define liberty. For there are two marks by which democracy is thought to be defined: “sovereignty of the majority” and “liberty.” “Just” is equated with what is equal, and the decision of the majority as to what is equal is regarded as sovereign; and liberty is seen in terms of doing what one wants.” – Aristotle
187. “Tools may be animate as well as inanimate; for instance, a ship’s captain uses a lifeless rudder, but a living man for watch; for a servant is, from the point of view of his craft, categorized as one of its tools. So any piece of property can be regarded as a tool enabling a man to live, and his property is an assemblage of such tools; a slave is a sort of living piece of property; and like any other servant is a tool in charge of other tools.” – Aristotle
188. “Every community is an association of some kind and every community is established with a view to some good; for everyone always acts in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good to a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.” – Aristotle
189. “Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.” – Aristotle
190. “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” – Aristotle
191. “What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.” – Aristotle
192. “Happiness is activity.” – Aristotle
193. “Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.” – Aristotle
194. “Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.” – Aristotle
195. “Happiness belongs to the self sufficient.” – Aristotle
196. “The activity of happiness must occupy an entire lifetime; for one swallow does not a summer make.” – Aristotle
197. “You can never learn anything that you did not already know.” – Aristotle
198. “Happiness is a sort of action.” – Aristotle
199. “The Life of the intellect is the best and pleasantest for man, because the intellect more than anything else is the man. Thus it will be the happiest life as well.” – Aristotle
200. “Happiness depends on ourselves.” – Aristotle
201. “A thing chosen always as an end and never as a means we call absolutely final. Now happiness above all else appears to be absolutely final in this sense, since we always choose it for its own sake and never as a means to something else.” – Aristotle
202. “Happiness is a certain activity of the soul in conformity with perfect goodness.” – Aristotle
203. “If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.” – Aristotle
204. “Happiness, then, is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.” – Aristotle
205. “Happiness is something final and complete in itself, as being the aim and end of all practical activities whatever …. Happiness then we define as the active exercise of the mind in conformity with perfect goodness or virtue.” – Aristotle
206. “My best friend is the man who is wishing me well wishes it for my sake.” – Aristotle
207. “A friend to all is a friend to none.” – Aristotle
208. “All friendly feelings toward others come from the friendly feelings a person has for himself.” – Aristotle
209. “The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.” – Aristotle
210. “Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.” – Aristotle
211. “In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.” – Aristotle
212. “A friend is a second self.” – Aristotle
213. “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.” – Aristotle
214. “Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” – Aristotle
215. “Friends are an aid to the young, to guard them from error; to the elderly, to attend to their wants and to supplement their failing power of action; to those in the prime of life, to assist them to noble deeds.” – Aristotle
216. “Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in excellence; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves.” – Aristotle
217. “We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends behave to us.” – Aristotle
218. “Friendship is a thing most necessary to life, since without friends no one would choose to live, though possessed of all other advantages.” – Aristotle
219. “Friendship is communion.” – Aristotle
220. “Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.” – Aristotle
221. “Wicked men obey from fear; good men,from love.” – Aristotle
222. “They – Young People have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things – and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning – all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently.” – “Aristotle QuotesThey overdo everything – they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else.” – Aristotle
223. “To love someone is to identify with them.” – Aristotle
224. “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” – Aristotle
225. “For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.” – Aristotle
226. “Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also to those who need it so much.” – Aristotle
227. “Friendship is essentially a partnership.” – Aristotle
228. “He who hath many friends hath none.” – Aristotle
229. “The final cause, then, produces motion through being loved.” – Aristotle
230. “Love is the cause of unity in all things.” – Aristotle
231. “The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” – Aristotle
232. “The truly good and wise man will bear all kinds of fortune in a seemly way, and will always act in the noblest manner that the circumstances allow.” – Aristotle
233. “Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.” – Aristotle
234. “The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.” – Aristotle
235. “The gods too are fond of a joke.” – Aristotle
236. “What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.” – Aristotle
237. “It concerns us to know the purposes we seek in life, for then, like archers aiming at a definite mark, we shall be more likely to attain what we want.” – Aristotle
238. “It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.” – Aristotle
239. “The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.” – Aristotle
240. “The quality of life is determined by its activities.” – Aristotle
241. “Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.” – Aristotle
242. “Remember that time slurs over everything, let all deeds fade, blurs all writings and kills all memories. Exempt are only those which dig into the hearts of men by love.” – Aristotle
243. “The actuality of thought is life.” – Aristotle
244. “Men pay most attention to what is their own: they care less for what is common; or, at any rate, they care for it only to the extent to which each is individually concerned.” – Aristotle
245. “Now property is part of a household, and the acquisition of property part of household-management; for neither life itself nor the good life is possible without a certain minimum supply of the necessities.” – Aristotle
246. “Property should be in a general sense common, but as a general rule private… In well-ordered states, although every man has his own property, some things he will place at the disposal of his friends, while of others he shares the use of them.” – Aristotle
247. “Prudence as well as Moral Virtue determines the complete performance of a man’s proper function: Virtue ensures the rightness of the end we aim at, Prudence ensures the rightness of the means we adopt to gain that end.” – Aristotle
248. “These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions … The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life.” – Aristotle
249. “If happiness, then, is activity expressing virtue, it is reasonable for it to express the supreme virtue, which will be the virtue of the best thing.” – Aristotle
250. “If purpose, then, is inherent in art, so is it in Nature also. The best illustration is the case of a man being his own physician, for Nature is like that – agent and patient at once.” – Aristotle
251. “Should a man live underground, and there converse with the works of art and mechanism, and should afterward be brought up into the open day, and see the several glories of heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the work of such a Being as we define God to be.” – Aristotle
252. “In part, art completes what nature cannot elaborate; and in part it imitates nature.” – Aristotle
253. “Excellence is not an art. It is the habit of practice.” – Aristotle