1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Aristotle

Aristotle Quotes
page 5
230 Thought-Provoking Insights from History's Greatest Philosopher

Discover the timeless wisdom of Aristotle through our collection of thought-provoking quotes. From the importance of education and self-discovery to the pursuit of happiness and the power of choice, delve into the profound insights of one of history's greatest philosophers.

Aristotle, an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath, was known for his wide range of writings covering various subjects such as philosophy, sciences, economics, politics, psychology, and arts. He founded the Peripatetic school of philosophy in Athens and laid the foundation for the development of modern science.

Not much is known about Aristotle's personal life. He was born in Stagira, Greece and was raised by a guardian after his father's death. At a young age, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until he was 37. After Plato's death, Aristotle left Athens to tutor Alexander the Great at the request of Philip II of Macedon. He established a library in the Lyceum where he wrote hundreds of books.

Aristotle's writings greatly influenced Western knowledge and continue to be a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion. His views shaped medieval scholarship as well as Judeo-Islamic philosophies and Christian theology. His works contained early formal studies of logic and ethics, which gained renewed interest with the advent of virtue ethics. Aristotle's influence extended into the 19th century and his contributions to various disciplines remain significant today.

✵ 384 BC – 321 BC
Aristotle photo
Aristotle: 230   quotes 252   likes

Aristotle Quotes

“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.”

Aristotle

“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.”

Aristotle
Lying , Way , Wisdom

“Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.”

Aristotle

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
A similar statement was attributed to Aristotle in antiquityː "Φίλος μὲν Σωκράτης, ἀλλὰ φιλτέρα ἀλήθεια." ["Socrates is a friend, but truth is a greater."] — Ammonius Hermiae, Life of Aristotle (as translated in Dictionary of Quotations http://archive.org/details/dictionaryquota02harbgoog (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 527). The variant mentioned above may possibly be derived from a reduction of a statement known to have been made by Isaac Newton, who at the head of notes he titled Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae (Certain Philosophical Questions) wrote in Latin: "Amicus Plato— amicus Aristoteles— magis amica veritas" which translates to: "Plato is my friend— Aristotle is my friend— but my greatest friend is truth." (c. 1664)
Another possible origin of the "dear is Plato" statement is in the Nicomachean Ethics; the Ross translation (of 1096a.11–1096a.16) provides: "We had perhaps better consider the universal good and discuss thoroughly what is meant by it, although such an inquiry is made an uphill one by the fact that the Forms have been introduced by friends of our own. Yet it would perhaps be thought to be better, indeed to be our duty, for the sake of maintaining the truth even to destroy what touches us closely, especially as we are philosophers; for, while both are dear, piety requires us to honour truth above our friends."
Note that the last clause, when quoted by itself loses the connection to "the friends" who introduced "the Forms", Plato above all. Therefore the misattribution could be the result of the "quote" actually being a paraphrase which identifies Plato where Aristotle only alludes to him circumspectly.
According to the notes in Plato: Republic Book X, edited by John Ferguson, p. 71, «the familiar 'amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas' is found in Cervantes' Don Quixote II 8 and cannot be traced further back. Cf. Roger Bacon Op. mai. I vii, '<i>amicus est Socrates, magister meus, sed magis est amica veritas</i>'. For the opposite view, see Cicero, T.D. I 17,39, '<i>errare mehercule malo cum Platone . . . quam cum istis vera sentire</i>'.»
Disputed
Variant: Plato is my friend, but the truth is more my friend.

“It is impossible for the same attribute at once to belong and not to belong to the same thing and in the same relation"; and we must add any further qualifications that may be necessary to meet logical objections. This is the most certain of principles, since it possesses the required definition; for it is impossible for anyone to suppose that the same thing is and is not, as some imagine that Heraclitus says.”

Aristotle book Metaphysics

Book IV, 1005
Metaphysics
Original: (el) τὸ γὰρ αὐτὸ ἅμα ὑπάρχειν τε καὶ μὴ ὑπάρχειν ἀδύνατον τῷ αὐτῷ καὶ κατὰ τὸ αὐτό （καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα προσδιορισαίμεθ᾽ ἄν, ἔστω προσδιωρισμένα πρὸς τὰς λογικὰς δυσχερείας）: αὕτη δὴ πασῶν ἐστὶ βεβαιοτάτη τῶν ἀρχῶν: ἔχει γὰρ τὸν εἰρημένον διορισμόν. ἀδύνατον γὰρ ὁντινοῦν ταὐτὸν ὑπολαμβάνειν εἶναι καὶ μὴ εἶναι, καθάπερ τινὲς οἴονται λέγειν Ἡράκλειτον.
Source: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0051%3Abook%3D4%3Asection%3D1005b

Imagination

“The third kind of life is the life of contemplation”

Aristotle

The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I), Bk. 1, Chapter III

Life

“Now the mass of mankind are plainly... choosing a life like that of brute animals...”

Aristotle

The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I), Bk. 1, Chapter III

Life , Animals

“There are three lines of life which stand out prominently to view: the life of pleasure, the political life, and the life of reflection.”

Aristotle

The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

Pleasure , Life

“Perhaps then we must begin with such facts as are known to us from individual experience. It is necessary therefore that the person who is to study, with any tolerable chance of profit, the principles of nobleness and justice and politics generally, should have received a good moral training.”

Aristotle

Bk I, Ch II
The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

Study , Personality , Training , Chance

“And surely to know what this good is, is of great importance for the conduct of life, for in that case we shall be like archers shooting at a definite mark, and shall be more likely to do what is right. But, if this is the case, we must try to comprehend, in outline at least, what it is and to which of the sciences it belongs.”

Aristotle

Bk I, Ch I
The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

Science , Life

“If, then, in the sphere of action there is some one end which we desire for its own sake, and for the sake of which we desire every thing else; and if we do not choose every thing for the sake of something else, for this would go on without limit, and our desire would be idle and futile, it is clear that this must be the supreme good, and the best thing of all.”

Aristotle

Bk I, Ch I
The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

“But it is clear there is a difference in the ends proposed: for in some cases they are activities, and in others results beyond the mere activities, and where there are certain ends beyond and beside the actions, the results are naturally superior to the activities. Now, as there are numerous kinds of actions and numerous arts and sciences, it follows that the ends are also various. Thus the end of the healing art is health, of ship-building ships, of strategy victory, of economy wealth.”

Aristotle

Bk I, Ch I
The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

Health , Science , Wealth , Victory

“Every art, and every system, and in like manner every action and purpose aims, it is thought, at some good; for which reason a common and by no means a bad description of the good is, ‘that at which all things aim.’”

Aristotle

Bk I, Ch I
The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

Art

“If every instrument could accomplish its own work, obeying or anticipating the will of others, like the statues of Daedalus, or the tripods of Hephaestus, which, says the poet, ‘of their own accord entered the assembly of the Gods’; if, in like manner, the shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them, chief workmen would not want servants, nor masters slaves.”

Aristotle book Politics

Book I, part 4 (1920 translation by Benjamin Jowett)
Popularly simplified to when the looms spin by themselves, we'll have no need for slaves.
Politics

God

“Now men seem, not unreasonably, to form their notions of the supreme good and of happiness from the lives of men.”

Aristotle

The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

Happiness , Men