Aristotle Quotes - 54 quotes

Share

Aristotle

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and polymath. He was born in Stagira, Macedonia. Aristotle was a student of Plato and later became the tutor of Alexander the Great. Aristotle founded the Lyceum in Athens, where he taught and conducted much of his research. His works cover a wide ran... show more

quote icon Plato... introduces two infinities, because both in increase and diminution there appears to be transcendency, and a progression to infinity.

Share

quote icon “The soul never thinks without an image.”

Share

quote icon “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Share

quote icon “Evil destroys even itself, and if it is complete becomes unbearable.”

Share

quote icon If it is a disgrace when a man cannot defend himself in a bodily way, it would seem odd not to think him disgraced when he cannot defend himself with reason...

Share

quote icon Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact.

Share

quote icon The premises must be the cause of the conclusion, more knowable than it, and prior to it; its causes, since we possess scientific knowledge of a thing only when we know its cause;

Share

quote icon Now the most universal causes are furthest from sense and particular causes are nearest to sense, and they are thus exactly opposed to each other.

Share

quote icon All advice to do things or not to do them is concerned with happiness, and with the things that make for or against it; whatever creates or increases happiness or some part of happiness, we ought to do; whatever destroys or hampers happiness, or gives rise to its opposite, we ought not to do.

Share

quote icon Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

Share

quote icon In poverty as well as in other misfortunes, people suppose that friends are their only refuge. And friendship is a help to the young, in saving them from error, just as it is also to the old, with a view to the care they require and their diminished capacity for action stemming from their weakness; it is a help also to those in their prime in performing noble actions, for ‘two going together’ are better able to think and to act.

Share

quote icon “The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand fold.”

Share

quote icon “For such a man, (an extreme skeptic who believes knowledge is impossible on any level), as such, is from the start no better than a vegetable.”

Share

quote icon “All advice to do things or not to do them is concerned with happiness, and with the things that make for or against it; whatever creates or increases happiness or some part of happiness, we ought to do; whatever destroys or hampers happiness, or gives rise to its opposite, we ought not to do.”

Share

quote icon Such friendship requires time and familiarity; as the proverb says, men cannot know each other till they have "eaten salt together"; nor, can they admit each other to friendship or be friends till each has been found lovable and been trusted by each..

Share

quote icon For instance, it is thought that justice is equality, and so it is, though not for everybody but only for those who are equals; and it is thought that inequality is just, for so indeed it is, though not for everybody, but for those who are unequal.

Share

quote icon Anyone can give … but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, and with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for everyone, nor is it easy.

Share

quote icon Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact.

Share

quote icon Now the most universal causes are furthest from sense and particular causes are nearest to sense, and they are thus exactly opposed to each other.

Share

quote icon I mean that objects nearer to sense are prior and more knowable to man; objects without qualification prior and more knowable are those further from sense.

Share

quote icon The premises of demonstrative knowledge must be true, primary, immediate, more knowable than and prior to the conclusion, which is further related to them as effect to cause... The premises must be the cause of the conclusion, more knowable than it, and prior to it; its causes, since we possess scientific knowledge of a thing only when we know its cause; prior, in order to be causes; antecedently known, this antecedent knowledge being not our mere understanding of the meaning, but knowledge of the fact as well. Now 'prior' and 'more knowable' are ambiguous terms, for there is a difference between what is prior and more knowable in the order of being and what is prior and knowable to man. I mean that objects nearer to sense are prior and more knowable to man; objects without qualification prior and more knowable are those further from sense.

Share

quote icon We may assume the superiority ceteris paribus [all things being equal] of the demonstration which derives from fewer postulates or hypotheses—in short from fewer premisses; for... given that all these are equally well known, where they are fewer knowledge will be more speedily acquired...

Share

quote icon The argument implied in our contention that demonstration from fewer assumptions is superior may be set out in universal form...

Share

quote icon The science which has to do with nature clearly concerns itself for the most part with bodies and magnitudes and their properties and movements...

Share

quote icon The natural way of doing this [seeking scientific knowledge or explanation of fact] is to start from the things which are more knowable and obvious to us and proceed towards those which are clearer and more knowable by nature; 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, but clearer to us, towards what is more clear and more knowable by nature. Now what is to us plain and obvious at first is rather confused masses, the elements and principles of which became known to us by later analysis...

Share

quote icon But it is better to assume principles less in number and finite...

Share

quote icon It is necessary that every thing which is harmonized, should be generated from that which is void of harmony...

Share

quote icon Universal is known according to reason, but that which is particular, according to sense...

Share

quote icon ...from nothing, nothing can be generated...

Share

quote icon “When I assert that that which is, is, or that that which is not, is not, my assertion is true. When I assert that that which is, is not, or that that which is not, is, my assertion is false.”

Share

quote icon Cause... is after one manner said to be that, from which, being inherent, something is produced...

Share

quote icon For if fortune were any thing, it would truly appear to be absurd; and some one might doubt why no one of the ancient wise men, when assigning the causes of generation and corruption, has ever defined any thing concerning fortune.

Share

quote icon Since causes are four in number, to know them all is the business of the natural philosopher...

Share

quote icon So the cause of why a thing is, is assigned by him who refers to matter, to essence, and to the first mover.

Share

quote icon that which is the first of all things, together with essence and form: for it is the end, and that for the sake of which a thing subsists. So that since nature is for the sake of something, it is also necessary to know this cause.

Share

quote icon Since... nature is a principle of motion and mutation... it is necessary that we should not be ignorant of what motion is... But motion appears to belong to things continuous; and the infinite first presents itself to the view in that which is continuous. ...[F]requently ...those who define the continuous, employ the nature or the infinite, as if that which is divisible to infinity is continuous.

Share

quote icon It is impossible for motion to subsist without place, and void, and time.

Share

quote icon There is... something which is in energy only; and there is something which is both in energy and capacity.

Share

quote icon Since the science of nature is conversant with magnitudes, motion, and time, each of which must necessarily be either infinite or finite...[we] should speculate the infinite, and consider whether it is or not; and if it is what it is.

Share

quote icon Because that which is finite is always bounded with reference to something... it is necessary that there should be no end... Number also appears to be infinite, and mathematical magnitudes, and that which is beyond the heavens. And since that which is beyond is infinite, body also appears to be infinite, and it would seem that there are infinite worlds; for why is there rather void here than there?

Share

quote icon The speculation of the infinite is, however, attended with doubt: for many impossibilities happen both to those who do not admit that it has a subsistence, and to those who do. ...It is ...especially the province of a natural philosopher to consider if there be a sensible infinite magnitude.

Share

quote icon They pronounce absurdly who thus speak, as the Pythagoreans assert: for at the same time they make the infinite to be essence, and distribute it into parts.

Share

quote icon It is impossible that each of the elements should be infinite. For that is body which has interval on all sides; and that is infinite which has extension without bound.

Share

quote icon The infinite is in capacity.

Share

quote icon The infinite... happens to subsist in a way contrary to what is asserted by others: for the infinite is not that beyond which there is nothing, but it is that of which there is always something beyond.

Share

quote icon It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Missing Reference

Share

quote icon We are what repeatedly do, Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

Missing Reference

Share

quote icon The only way to avoid criticism: say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.

Missing Reference

Share

quote icon It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.

Missing Reference

Share

quote icon We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then , is not an act, but a habit.

Missing Reference

Share

quote icon A friend to all is a friend to none

Missing Reference

Share

quote icon The gods too are fond of a joke.

Missing Reference

Share

quote icon Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

Missing Reference

Share

quote icon Wit is educated insolence.

Missing Reference

Share