Quotes from Aristotle

it is the function of a poet to relate not things that have happened, but things that may happen

a poet must be a composer of plots rather than of verses

the first principle of all action is leisure.

All who have meditated upon the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depend upon the education of youth.

In a practical syllogism, the major premise is an opinion, while the minor premise deals with particular things, which are the province of perception. Now when the two premises are combined, just as in theoretic reasoning the mind is compelled to affirm the resulting conclusion, so in the case of practical premises you are forced at once to do it.

Happiness is a kind of activity of the soul; whereas the remaining good things are either merely indispensable conditions of happiness, or are of the nature of auxiliary means, and useful instrumentally.

The quality of life is determined by its activities.

Actions which produce [virtue] are those which increase it, and also, if differently performed, destroy it.

For when people do not keep watch over the commons, it is destroyed. It results, then, that they fall into civil faction, compelling one another by force and not wishing to do what is just themselves.

To Aristotle or to Plato the State is, above all, a large and powerful educative agency which gives the individual increased opportunities of self-development and greater capacities for the enjoyment of life.

Education is an ornament in prosperity & a refuge in adversity.

To feel these feelings at the right time, on the right occasion, towards the right people, for the right purpose and in the right manner, is to feel the best amount of them, which is the mean amount - and the best amount is of course the mark of virtue.

Again, those also who are ignorant of legal regulations which they are bound to know, and which are not hard to know, they chastise; and similarly in all other cases where neglect is thought to be the cause of the ignorance, under the notion that it was in their power to prevent their ignorance, because they might have paid attention.

the actuality of thought is life

Therefore, even the lover of myth is a philosopher; for myth is composed of wonder.

for nobility is excellence of race.

For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.

Man's work as Man is accomplished by virtue of Practical Wisdom and Moral Virtue, the latter giving the right aim and direction, the former the right means to its attainment;

Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly every action and rational choice, is thought to aim at some good; and so the good had been aptly described as that at which everything aims.

for it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs.

Der Anfang ist die Hälfte vom Ganzen.

Happiness seems to depend on leisure, because we work to have leisure, and wage war to live in peace.

For nothing is moved at haphazard, but in every case there must be some reason present [1071b]

The devotee of myth is in a way a philosopher, for myth is made up of things that cause wonder. (Metaphysics, I, 982b 18–19)