Top 500 Aristotle Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “A promise made must be a promise kept.”

— Aristotle

102. “Man is the metre of all things, the hand is the instrument of instruments, and the mind is the form of forms.”

— Aristotle

103. “The most beautiful colors laid on at random, give less pleasure than a black-and-white drawing.”

— Aristotle

104. “At the intersection where your gifts, talents, and abilities meet a human need; therein you will discover your purpose.”

— Aristotle

105. “Be a free thinker and don’t accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.”

— Aristotle

106. “95% of everything you do is the result of habit.”

— Aristotle

107. “We can’t learn without pain.”

— Aristotle

108. “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Give a man a poisoned fish, you feed him for the rest of his life.”

— Aristotle

109. “He who has conferred a benefit on anyone from motives of love or honor will feel pain, if he sees that the benefit is received without gratitude.”

— Aristotle

110. “Teaching is the highest form of understanding.”

— Aristotle

111. “The greatest of all pleasures is the pleasure of learning.”

— Aristotle

112. “Health is a matter of choice, not a mystery of chance.”

— Aristotle

113. “True happiness comes from gaining insight and growing into your best possible self. Otherwise all you’re having is immediate gratification pleasure, which is fleeting and doesn’t grow you as a person.”

— Aristotle

114. “The quality of life is determined by its activities.”

— Aristotle

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

— Aristotle

116. “The hardest victory is the victory over self.”

— Aristotle

117. “First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”

— Aristotle

118. “The senses are gateways to the intelligence. There is nothing in the intelligence which did not first pass through the senses.”

— Aristotle

119. “It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.”

— Aristotle

120. “Happiness is the highest good.”

— Aristotle

121. “The worst thing about slavery is that the slaves eventually get to like it.”

— Aristotle

122. “Love is the cause of unity in all things.”

— Aristotle

123. “The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.”

— Aristotle

124. “We work to earn our leisure.”

— Aristotle

125. “What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.”

— Aristotle

126. “Music directly represents the passions of the soul. If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person.”

— Aristotle

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

— Aristotle

128. “Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.”

— Aristotle

129. “The soul never thinks without a picture.”

— Aristotle

130. “Speech is the representation of the mind, and writing is the representation of speech.”

— Aristotle

131. “Think as the wise men think, but talk like the simple people do.”

— Aristotle

132. “Happiness belongs to the self sufficient.”

— Aristotle

133. “A tragedy is that moment where the hero comes face to face with his true identity.”

— Aristotle

134. “The intelligence consists not only in the knowledge but also in the skill to apply the knowledge into practice.”

— Aristotle

135. “Law is order, and good law is good order.”

— Aristotle

136. “Greed has no boundaries.”

— Aristotle

137. “The fool tells me his reason; the wise man persuades me with my own.”

— Aristotle

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

— Aristotle

139. “We become brave by doing brave acts.”

— Aristotle

140. “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.”

— Aristotle

141. “The misanthrope, as an essentially solitary man, is not a man at all: he must be a beast or a god...”

— Aristotle

142. “Justice therefore demands that no one should do more ruling than being ruled, but that all should have their turn.”

— Aristotle

143. “Friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons.”

— Aristotle

144. “If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.”

— Aristotle

145. “To lead an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd.”

— Aristotle

146. “Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it.”

— Aristotle

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

— Aristotle

148. “Soul and body, I suggest react sympathetically upon each other. A change in the state of the soul produces a change in the shape of the body and conversely, a change in the shape of the body produces a change in the state of the soul.”

— Aristotle

149. “Life is only meaningful when we are striving for a goal .”

— Aristotle

150. “The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.”

— Aristotle