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

Between friends there is no need of justice.
—Aristotle
Topics: Friendship

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
—Aristotle
Topics: Equality

All men by nature desire to know.
—Aristotle
Topics: Desire, Knowledge, Nature

It is better to rise from life as from a banquet—neither thirsty nor drunken.
—Aristotle
Topics: Moderation

All human beings, by nature, desire to know.
—Aristotle
Topics: Nature

The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement.
—Aristotle
Topics: Excellence

Most people would rather give than get affection.
—Aristotle
Topics: Affection, Love

The argument of Alcidamas: Everyone honours the wise. Thus the Parians have honoured Archilochus, in spite of his bitter tongue; the Chians Homer, though he was not their countryman; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, though she was a woman; the Lacedaemonians actually made Chilon a member of their senate, though they are the least literary of men; the inhabitants of Lampsacus gave public burial to Anaxagoras, though he was an alien, and honour him even to this day.
—Aristotle

For both excessive and insufficient exercise destroy one’s strength, and both eating and drinking too much or too little destroy health, whereas the right quantity produces, increases or preserves it. So it is the same with temperance, courage and the other virtues…This much then, is clear: in all our conduct it is the mean that is to be commended.
—Aristotle
Topics: Action

It is the duty of government to make it difficult for people to do wrong, easy to do right.
—Aristotle
Topics: Government, Work

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.
—Aristotle
Topics: Happiness, Excellence

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

It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
—Aristotle
Topics: Deception/Lying

A king ruleth as he ought; a tyrant as he lists; a king to the profit of all, a tyrant only to please a few.
—Aristotle
Topics: Tyranny

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
—Aristotle
Topics: Education

No state will be well administered unless the middle class holds sway.
—Aristotle
Topics: Class

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.
—Aristotle
Topics: Friendship

Business or toil is merely utilitarian. It is necessary, but does not enrich or ennoble a human life.
—Aristotle
Topics: Business

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
—Aristotle
Topics: Chance, Desire, Action

Quality is not an act. It is a habit.
—Aristotle
Topics: One liners, Habit, Habits, Quality

Philosophy is the science which considers truth.
—Aristotle
Topics: Philosophy

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.
—Aristotle
Topics: Revolution, Revolutionaries, Revolutions

Good has two meanings: it means that which is good absolutely and that which is good for somebody.
—Aristotle
Topics: Goodness

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

Nor was civil society founded merely to preserve the lives of its members; but that they might live well: for otherwise a state might be composed of slaves, or the animal creation… nor is it an alliance mutually to defend each other from injuries, or for a commercial intercourse. But whosoever endeavors to establish wholesome laws in a state, attends to the virtues and vices of each individual who composes it; from whence it is evident, that the first care of him who would found a city, truly deserving that name, and not nominally so, must be to have his citizens virtuous.
—Aristotle
Topics: Society

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
—Aristotle
Topics: Property

It is by education I learn to do by choice, what other men do by the constraint of fear.
—Aristotle
Topics: Education

All men by nature desire knowledge.
—Aristotle
Topics: Knowledge

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: Action, Acting, Ethics, Habit

Inferiors revolt in order that they be equal, and equals that they be superior.
—Aristotle
Topics: Equality

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