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;” and in the West, he was “The Philosopher.”
Aristotle produced a large number of writings, but comparatively 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.”
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.
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All that one gains by falsehood is, not to be believed when he speaks the truth.
—Aristotle
Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
—Aristotle
Topics: Politics
Youth is easily deceived, because it is quick to hope.
—Aristotle
Topics: Youth
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
Topics: Action, Habit, Events, Excellence
Philosophy is the science which considers truth.
—Aristotle
Topics: Philosophy
Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.
—Aristotle
Topics: One liners, Equality
Wicked men obey out of fear; good men, out of love.
—Aristotle
Topics: Love
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
—Aristotle
The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
—Aristotle
Topics: Virtues, Virtue
Humans seek happiness as an end in itself, not as a means to something else.
—Aristotle
Happiness is a sort of action.
—Aristotle
Topics: Happiness
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
Whatsoever that be within us that feels, thinks, desires, and animates, is something celestial, divine, and, consequently, imperishable.
—Aristotle
Topics: Immortality
Watch the costs and the profits will take care of themselves.
—Aristotle
No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.
—Aristotle
Topics: Existence
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
Topics: Beauty, Acceptance, Heroes, Courage, Bravery
It is owing to their wonder that people both now begin and at first began to philosophize.
—Aristotle
Topics: Wonder, Knowledge
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
—Aristotle
Topics: Friends, Friendship
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
—Aristotle
Teaching is the highest form of understanding.
—Aristotle
Topics: Teaching, One liners
The mother of revolution and crime is poverty.
—Aristotle
Topics: Poverty, One liners
That judges of important causes should hold office for life is not a good thing, for the mind grows old as well as the body.
—Aristotle
Topics: Aging
We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.
—Aristotle
Topics: Anger
Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
—Aristotle
Topics: Meaning, Goal, Goals
All men desire to know
—Aristotle
Topics: Philosophy, One liners
Nature does nothing uselessly.
—Aristotle
Topics: Nature
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
—Aristotle
Topics: Ethics, Action, Acting, Habit
Memory is the scribe of the soul.
—Aristotle
Topics: Memory
Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.
—Aristotle
Topics: Class, Character
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
—Aristotle
Topics: One liners, Graduation, Education, Society
Anything that we have to learn we learn by the actual doing of it… we become just by performing just acts, temperate by performing temperate ones, brave by performing brave ones.
—Aristotle
Topics: Doing, Act, Become, Learn, Ethics
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
—Aristotle
Topics: Property
Bad men are full of repentance.
—Aristotle
Topics: Repentance, Forgiveness
Plants are created for the sake of animals, and animals for the sake of men; the tame for our use and provision; the wild, at least for the greater part, for our provision also, or for some other advantageous purpose, as furnishing us with clothes, and the like.
—Aristotle
Topics: Wilderness
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
—Aristotle
Either a beast or a god.
—Aristotle
Topics: Humankind
It is better to rise from life as from a banquet—neither thirsty nor drunken.
—Aristotle
Topics: Moderation
It is possible to fail in many ways… while to succeed is possible only in one way.
—Aristotle
When several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing, the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life.
—Aristotle
The soul never thinks without a mental picture.
—Aristotle
Topics: Soul, Vision
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