Top 17 Most Famous Aristotle Quotes to Inspire You
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
PinKnowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.PinIt is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.PinAnyone can become angry — that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way — this is not easy.PinWhat is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. Also read: Friendship QuotesPinWishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.PinEducating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.PinCourage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.”
Aristotle
PinPatience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.PinThe high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.PinIt is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions. Also read: Habits QuotesPinI count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.PinNo great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.PinThe energy of the mind is the essence of life.PinAt his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.PinHappiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
73 Inspirational Quotes on Love, Friendship, and Life
PinA likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.PinThe whole is more than the sum of its parts.PinIt is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.PinDemocracy arose from men’s thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.PinA friend to all is a friend to none.PinAll human beings, by nature, desire to know.
First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”
Aristotle
PinMan is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.PinIn all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.PinThose 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.PinLearning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain.PinHe who has overcome his fears will truly be free.PinTime crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of time and is forgotten through the lapse of time.
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
PinThe worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.PinPleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.PinWhere your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.PinIt is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.PinEquality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.PinWise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something.PinMisfortune shows those who are not really friends.PinHappiness depends upon ourselves.PinAll persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.PinCriticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.PinWe make war that we may live in peace.
Friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons.”
Aristotle
PinThe aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.PinYou will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.PinDignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.PinHe who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.PinIt is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.PinIt is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.PinThose who know, do. Those that understand, teach.PinEducation is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.”
Aristotle
PinThe secret to humor is surprise.PinEven when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.PinQuality is not an act, it is a habit.PinMy best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.PinPoetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.”
Aristotle
PinOne 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.PinThe educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.PinPoverty is the parent of revolution and crime.PinAll human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.PinWhatever lies within our power to do lies also within our power not to do.
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
PinIt is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.PinPlato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.PinEvery rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal.PinI do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law.PinGood habits formed at youth make all the difference.
It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible.”
Aristotle
PinThe roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.PinWicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.PinThe least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand fold.PinThe antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.PinThe more you know, the more you know you don’t know.PinFor the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.PinHappiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.PinWithout friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.PinIf happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.PinFear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.PinThe ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.PinMoral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.PinThe soul never thinks without a picture. Hope is the dream of a waking man.PinCharacter may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.PinIt is possible to fail in many ways… while to succeed is possible only in one way.PinEducation is the best provision for old age.PinThe aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.PinWe give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.PinTo write well, express yourself like common people, but think like a wise man. Or, think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.PinGreat men are always of a nature originally melancholy.
Aristotle Short Biography
Born on 384 BC in the ancient city of Stagira, Chalcidian League, Aristotle was a philosopher, scientist, and a pivotal figure of the Ancient Greek.
Considered to be one of the influential intellectual figures of Western history, Aristotle is the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and the Aristotelian tradition.
Together with Plato and Socrates, Aristotle had laid much of the groundwork for western philosophy. Today, he is still considered one of the greatest thinkers in politics, psychology, and ethics.
Overcoming depression and suicidal thoughts, Jeremiah Say found solace in quotes. After filling countless pages with resonating words, he moved his collection online to save trees and inspire others. Thus, GraciousQuotes.com was born. Jeremiah firmly believes in the power of quotes to swiftly spark inspiration during hard times. His blog is dedicated to uplifting others through these shared wisdoms. Discover more about Gracious Quotes or get in touch with Jeremiah.