Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher, logician, and scientist. The founder of the science of logic, he made significant and lasting contributions to nearly every aspect of human knowledge. Aristotle is one of the most significant figures in philosophy—his achievement has been fundamental to the development of Western philosophy.

Born in the small Greek town of Stagiros, later Stagira, in Greek Macedonia, Aristotle joined Plato’s Academy at the age of 17. He remained there for 20 years, and even though his respect for Plato was always great, differences developed, which ultimately caused a rift.

After Plato’s death, Aristotle tutored the young Alexander the Great and founded the Lyceum school of philosophy outside Athens in 335 BCE. The Lyceum is the forerunner of modern educational and research institutions.

Aristotle is one of the most prominent thinkers in the history of Western thought. His work was fundamental to Islāmic and medieval Christian philosophy—in Arabic philosophy, he was known only as “The First Teacher;” in the West, he was “The Philosopher.”

Aristotle produced a large number of writings, but few have survived. They cover nearly every branch of human knowledge—logic, ethics, metaphysics, politics, the weather, planetary motions, natural science, and physics. His principal works are the Organon (six treatises on logic and syllogism,) Politics (the conduct of the state,) Poetics (analysis of poetry and tragedy,) and Rhetoric.

Aristotle organized all the knowledge of his time into a coherent whole, which served as the basis for much of medieval science and philosophy. He espoused the principle of the golden mean (as did Confucius, independently) that the best path in life was the one between two extremes, or “moderation in all things.”

Along with Socrates and Plato, Aristotle was the most influential of Greek philosophers who laid the foundations of Western philosophy with the help of Presocratic Greek philosophy. Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Aristotle was largely forgotten by the West. In the intervening time, he had a profound effect on the development of Islāmic philosophy. Islāmic scholarship eventually provided for medieval Christian scholasticism, and Aristotle’s scholarship was resurrected in particular through the work of Thomas Aquinas.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Aristotle

Shame is an ornament to the young; a disgrace to the old.
—Aristotle
Topics: Shame

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.
—Aristotle

Tragedy is a representation of action that is worthy of serious attention, complete in itself and of some magnitude – bringing about by means of pity and fear the purging of such emotions.
—Aristotle
Topics: Tragedy

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
Topics: Friendship, Friends and Friendship

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
—Aristotle

Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity.
—Aristotle
Topics: Success, Happiness, Money

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
—Aristotle
Topics: Goals, Meaning, Goal

Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
—Aristotle
Topics: Confidence

One must learn by doing the thing, for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.
—Aristotle
Topics: Doing

Wit is educated insolence.
—Aristotle
Topics: Intelligence, Wit

Youth is easily deceived, because it is quick to hope.
—Aristotle
Topics: Youth

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.
—Aristotle
Topics: Man

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
—Aristotle
Topics: Ideas, Appearance

Obstinate people can be divded into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish.
—Aristotle

A true friend is one soul in two bodies.
—Aristotle
Topics: Friends and Friendship

Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
—Aristotle
Topics: Poetry, Poets, Art

Youth loves honor and victory more than money.
—Aristotle
Topics: Youth

For as the interposition of a rivulet, however small, will occasion the line of the phalanx to fluctuate, so any trifling disagreement will be the cause of seditions; but they will not so soon flow from anything else as from the disagreement between virtue and vice, and next to that between poverty and riches.
—Aristotle
Topics: Revolution

The mother of revolution and crime is poverty.
—Aristotle
Topics: Poverty, One liners

The high-minded man is fond of conferring benefits, but it shames him to receive them.
—Aristotle
Topics: Praise

Memory is the scribe of the soul.
—Aristotle
Topics: Memory

There is a cropping-time in the races of men, as in the fruits of the field; and sometimes, if the shock be good, there springs up for a time a succession of splendid men; and then comes a period of barrenness.
—Aristotle
Topics: Man

Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil and, if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty
—Aristotle
Topics: Liberty

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
—Aristotle
Topics: Wisdom, Learn, Adversity, Education, Society

The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class.
—Aristotle
Topics: Community

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 the government to the utmost.
—Aristotle
Topics: Equality, Government, Democracy, Liberty

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
Topics: Being Ourselves, Happiness, Government

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.
—Aristotle
Topics: Friendship, Friends

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
Topics: Goals, Goal

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
—Aristotle
Topics: Awareness, Survival

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