ARISTOTLE QUOTES V

Greek philosopher (384 B.C. - 322 B.C.)

For the roots of plants are analogous to what is called the mouth in an animal, being the organ by which food is admitted.

ARISTOTLE

On Youth & Old Age, Life & Death


Our statements will be adequate if made with as much clearness as the matter allows.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics


Whoever, therefore, is unfit to live in a commonwealth, is above or below humanity.

ARISTOTLE

Politics


Nor does the argument about the contrary seem to be well urged. It does not follow, they say, because pain is an evil, that pleasure is a good; for the opposite to evil may be not a good, but some other evil, and both evil and good may stand opposed to something which is neither one nor the other.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics


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

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: friends


Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: writing


In the case of some people, not even if we had the most accurate scientific knowledge, would it be easy to persuade them were we to address them through the medium of that knowledge; for a scientific discourse, it is the privilege of education to appreciate, and it is impossible that this should extend to the multitude.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


Reason ... governs like a just and lawful prince, and the little community of man is thus held together and sustained.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: reason


That which is a common concern is very generally neglected. The energies of man are excited by that which depends on himself alone, and of which he only is to reap the whole profit or glory.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: selfishness


We ought to be able to persuade on opposite sides of a question; as also we ought in the case of arguing by syllogism: not that we should practice both, for it is not right to persuade to what is bad; but in order that the bearing of the case may not escape us, and that when another makes an unfair use of these reasonings, we may be able to solve them.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


Bad men are full of repentance.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: repentance


There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions--that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


Thought is required wherever a statement is proved, or, it may be, a general truth enunciated.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: thought


Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality--namely, Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Song.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics


Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: freedom


The precepts of the law may be comprehended under these three points: to live honestly, to hurt no man willfully, and to render every man his due carefully.

ARISTOTLE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: law


Be studious to preserve your reputation; if that be once lost, you are like a cancelled writing, of no value, and at best you do but survive your own funeral.

ARISTOTLE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: reputation


Wealth is clearly not the absolute good of which we are in search, for it is a utility, and only desirable as a means.

ARISTOTLE

Nicomachean Ethics

Tags: wealth


A statement is persuasive and credible either because it is directly self-evident or because it appears to be proved from other statements that are so. In either case it is persuasive because there is somebody whom it persuades.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric


Every political society forms, it is plain, a sort of community or partnership, instituted for the benefit of the partners. Utility is the end and aim of every such institution; and the greatest and most extensive utility is the aim of that great association, comprehending all the rest, and known by the name of a commonwealth.

ARISTOTLE

Politics

Tags: society