Aristotle quotes:

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

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.

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.

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.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

Some animals are cunning and evil-disposed, as the fox; others, as the dog, are fierce, friendly, and fawning. Some are gentle and easily tamed, as the elephant; some are susceptible of shame, and watchful, as the goose. Some are jealous and fond of ornament, as the peacock.

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.

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.

Those 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.

Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

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 government to the utmost.

Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.

The eyes of some persons are large, others small, and others of a moderate size; the last-mentioned are the best. And some eyes are projecting, some deep-set, and some moderate, and those which are deep-set have the most acute vision in all animals; the middle position is a sign of the best disposition.

It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.

We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.

Some animals utter a loud cry. Some are silent, and others have a voice, which in some cases may be expressed by a word; in others, it cannot. There are also noisy animals and silent animals, musical and unmusical kinds, but they are mostly noisy about the breeding season.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

No one loves the man whom he fears.

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

The law is reason, free from passion.

Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.

Whether if soul did not exist time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked; for if there cannot be someone to count there cannot be anything that can be counted, so that evidently there cannot be number; for number is either what has been, or what can be, counted.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

Some kinds of animals burrow in the ground; others do not. Some animals are nocturnal, as the owl and the bat; others use the hours of daylight. There are tame animals and wild animals. Man and the mule are always tame; the leopard and the wolf are invariably wild, and others, as the elephant, are easily tamed.

Education is the best provision for old age.

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

To attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world.

We are not angry with people we fear or respect, as long as we fear or respect them; you cannot be afraid of a person and also at the same time angry with him.

For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

Hope is a waking dream.

Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in excellence; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves.

Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.

A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

The soul never thinks without a picture.

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

Change in all things is sweet.

No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects - things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language - either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.

Man is by nature a political animal.

Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.

For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.

Nature does nothing in vain.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

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.

Long-lived persons have one or two lines which extend through the whole hand; short-lived persons have two lines not extending through the whole hand.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

Well begun is half done.

The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.

It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.

To perceive is to suffer.

The Ideal age for marriage in men is 35. The Ideal age for marriage in women is 18

The nobelest expenditure is that which is made in the Divine Service

Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.

The art of wealth-getting which consists in household management, on the one hand, has a limit; the unlimited acquisition of wealth is not its business. And therefore, in one point of view, all riches must have a limit; nevertheless, as a matter of fact, we find the opposite to be the case; for all getters of wealth increase their hard coin without limit.

Adventure is worthwhile.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

For well-being and health, again, the homestead should be airy in summer, and sunny in winter. A homestead possessing these qualities would be longer than it is deep; and its main front would face the south.

Why do they call it proctology? Is it because analogy was already taken?

Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.

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.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

It concerns us to know the purposes we seek in life, for then, like archers aiming at a definite mark, we shall be more likely to attain what we want.

In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.

This world is inescapably linked to the motions of the worlds above. All power in this world is ruled by these options.

The attainment of truth is then the function of both the intellectual parts of the soul. Therefore their respective virtues are those dispositions which will best qualify them to attain truth.

The avarice of mankind is insatiable.

Bad people...are in conflict with themselves; they desire one thing and will another, like the incontinent who choose harmful pleasures instead of what they themselves believe to be good.

It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

Either a beast or a god.

We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends behave to us

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.

The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class.

There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

A body in motion can maintain this motion only if it remains in contact with a mover.

And of course, the brain is not responsible for any of the sensations at all. The correct view is that the seat and source of sensation is the region of the heart.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

Moral 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.

Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled ; and by doing brave acts, we become brave.

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

Now that practical skills have developed enough to provide adequately for material needs, one of these sciences which are not devoted to utilitarian ends [mathematics] has been able to arise in Egypt, the priestly caste there having the leisure necessary for disinterested research.

A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself . . . with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.

Whatsoever that be within us that feels, thinks, desires, and animates, is something celestial, divine, and, consequently, imperishable.

Rhetoric is the counterpart of logic; since both are conversant with subjects of such a nature as it is the business of all to have a certain knowledge of, and which belong to no distinct science. Wherefore all men in some way participate of both; since all, to a certain extent, attempt, as well to sift, as to maintain an argument; as well to defend themselves, as to impeach.

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.

We are masters of our actions from the beginning up to the very end. But, in the case of our habits, we are only masters of their commencement--each particular little increase being as imperceptible as in the case of bodily infirmities. But yet our habits are voluntary, in that it was once in our power to adopt or not to adopt such or such a course of conduct.