Popular Quotes by Aristotle

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Western philosophy and science. Born in Stagira, he was a student of Plato and later became the tutor to Alexander the Great. Aristotle’s intellectual contributions spanned a vast array of subjects, including metaphysics, ethics, politics, logic, biology, and physics. His systematic approach to inquiry laid the foundation for modern scientific methodology, and his works such as “Nicomachean Ethics,” “Politics,” and “Metaphysics” continue to shape philosophical discourse and thought to this day.

1. Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
2. A friend to all is a friend of none.
3. At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
4. Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
5. 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.
6. He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.
7. No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.
8. Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
9. The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.
10. There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
11. All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.
12. Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.
13. Virtue lies in our power, and similarly so does vice; because where it is in our power to act, it is also in our power not to act.
14. Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.
15. Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
16. To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.
17. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
18. Memory is the scribe of the soul.
19. Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you a man.
20. A friend is a second self, so that our consciousness of a friend’s existence…makes us more fully conscious of our own existence.