Occupation: Philosopher and Scientist
Born: 384 BC in Stagira, Greece
Died: 322 BC in Euboea, Greece
Aristotle was a student of Plato and also the teacher of Alexander the Great. He opened his own school called Peripatetic School
Here is a list of some of his many wisdom filled quotes.
Enjoy!
Learn More About Aristotles Life Here
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
“Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.”
“Memory is the scribe of the soul”
“The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.”
“To lead an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd”
“Through discipline comes freedom.”
“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.”
“Happiness is a state of activity.”
“Yes the truth is that men’s ambition and their desire to make money are among the most frequent causes of deliberate acts of injustice.”
“It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.”
“They who love in excess also hate in excess.”
“Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own”
“He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”
“Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.
“We must be neither cowardly nor rash but courageous.”
“It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.”
“Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”
“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.
“Whatever lies within our power to do lies also within our power not to do.”
“The soul never thinks without a mental picture.”
“Philosophy can make people sick.”
“youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.”
“Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.”
“If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.”
“Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form, but with regard to their mode of life.”
“We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.”
“Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god. ”
“I have gained this by philosophy … I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law.”
“All Earthquakes and Disasters are warnings; there’s too much corruption in the world”
“He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled”
“Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.”
“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.”
“All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.”
“Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient.”
“Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.
“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
“Nature does nothing uselessly.”
“All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.”
“Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something”
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”
“The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
“Learning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain.”
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
“The secret to humor is surprise.”
“We become brave by doing brave acts.”
“Happiness is a quality of the soul…not a function of one’s material circumstances.”
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”
“The gods too are fond of a joke.”
“Anger Is A Gift
“Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.”
“Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.”
“Democracy arose from men’s thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.”
“We make war that we may live in peace.”
“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
“To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.”
“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.”
“Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.”
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
“One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
“Man is by nature a political animal.
“It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
“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.”
“The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.”
“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.
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
“Hope is a waking dream.”
“The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.”
“To perceive is to suffer.”
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”
“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.”
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
“If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development”
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
“The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.”
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”