Top 500 Aristotle Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “Equality is of two kinds, numerical and proportional; by the first I mean sameness of equality in number or size; by the second, equality of ratios.”

— Aristotle

302. “The purpose of art is to represent the meaning of things. This represents the true reality, not external aspects.”

— Aristotle

303. “The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.”

— Aristotle

304. “To be always seeking after the useful does not become free and exalted souls.”

— Aristotle

305. “A true friend is one soul divided into two people.”

— Aristotle

306. “When the looms spin by themselves, we’ll have no need for slaves.”

— Aristotle

307. “Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies.”

— Aristotle

308. “True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.”

— Aristotle

309. “People become house builders through building houses, harp players through playing the harp. We grow to be just by doing things which are just.”

— Aristotle

310. “No science ever defends its first principles.”

— Aristotle

311. “Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character ofthe speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.”

— Aristotle

312. “It’s the fastest who gets paid, and it’s the fastest who gets laid.”

— Aristotle

313. “Happiness lies in virtuous activity, and perfect happiness lies in the best activity, which is contemplative.”

— Aristotle

314. “The family is the association established by nature for the supply of man’s everyday wants.”

— Aristotle

315. “If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.”

— Aristotle

316. “The heart is the perfection of the whole organism. Therefore the principles of the power of perception and the souls ability to nourish itself must lie in the heart.”

— Aristotle

317. “Men pay most attention to what is their own: they care less for what is common; or, at any rate, they care for it only to the extent to which each is individually concerned.”

— Aristotle

318. “The soul becomes prudent by sitting and being quiet.”

— Aristotle

319. “Emotions of any kind can be evoked by melody and rhythm; therefore music has the power to form character.”

— Aristotle

320. “The society that loses its grip on the past is in danger, for it produces men who know nothing but the present, and who are not aware that life had been, and could be, different from what it is.”

— Aristotle

321. “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.”

— Aristotle

322. “The best tragedies are conflicts between a hero and his destiny.”

— Aristotle

323. “With the truth, all given facts harmonize; but with what is false, the truth soon hits a wrong note.”

— Aristotle

324. “Anyone who has no need of anybody but himself is either a beast or a God.”

— Aristotle

325. “Should a man live underground, and there converse with the works of art and mechanism, and should afterwards be brought up into the open day, and see the several glories of the heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the work of such a Being as we define God to be.”

— Aristotle

326. “A democracy is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no property, and vulgar employments.”

— Aristotle

327. “The Life of the intellect is the best and pleasantest for man, because the intellect more than anything else is the man. Thus it will be the happiest life as well.”

— Aristotle

328. “The Eyes are the organs of temptation, and the Ears are the organs of instruction.”

— Aristotle

329. “To learn is a natural pleasure, not confined to philosophers, but common to all men.”

— Aristotle

330. “In practical matters the end is not mere speculative knowledge of what is to be done, but rather the doing of it. It is not enough to know about Virtue, then, but we must endeavor to possess it, and to use it, or to take any other steps that may make.”

— Aristotle

331. “Men are marked from the moment of birth to rule or be ruled.”

— Aristotle

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

— Aristotle

333. “Metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge of unprovable starting-points concepts and truth and demonstrative knowledge of what follows from them.”

— Aristotle

334. “A good style must have an air of novelty, at the same time concealing its art.”

— Aristotle

335. “A life of wealth and many belongings is only a means to happiness. Honor, power, and success cannot be happiness because they depend on the whims of others, and happiness should be self-contained, complete in itself.”

— Aristotle

336. “The right constitutions, three in number- kingship, aristocracy, and polity- and the deviations from these, likewise three in number – tyranny from kingship, oligarchy from aristocracy, democracy from polity.”

— Aristotle

337. “Wickedness is nourished by lust.”

— Aristotle

338. “The intention makes the crime.”

— Aristotle

339. “Life cannot be lived, and understood, simultaneously.”

— Aristotle

340. “Those that deem politics beneath their dignity are doomed to be governed by those of lesser talents.”

— Aristotle

341. “Thinking is different from perceiving and is held to be in part imagination, in part judgment.”

— Aristotle

342. “Suppose, then, that all men were sick or deranged, save one or two of them who were healthy and of right mind. It would then be the latter two who would be thought to be sick and deranged and the former not!”

— Aristotle

343. “The form of government is a democracy when the free, who are also poor and the majority, govern, and an oligarchy when the rich and the noble govern, they being at the same time few in number.”

— Aristotle

344. “Maybe crying is a means of cleaning yourself out emotionally. Or maybe it’s your last resort; the only way to express yourself when words fail, the same as when you were a baby and had no words.”

— Aristotle

345. “All proofs rest on premises.”

— Aristotle

346. “A fool contributes nothing worth hearing and takes offense at everything.”

— Aristotle

347. “Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also to those who need it so much.”

— Aristotle

348. “But nature flies from the infinite; for the infinite is imperfect, and nature always seeks an end.”

— Aristotle

349. “All food must be capable of being digested, and that what produces digestion is warmth; that is why everything that has soul in it possesses warmth.”

— Aristotle

350. “Some vices miss what is right because they are deficient, others because they are excessive, in feelings or in actions, while virtue finds and chooses the mean.”

— Aristotle