Quotes from Aristotle

Muchos hombres se abstienen de hacer y, conformándose con sólo tratar las teorías, creen que son filósofos y que por esta vía seran virtuosos. A éstos les ocurre lo mismo que a los enfermos que escuchan con atención al médico, pero que luego no hacen nada de lo que les prescriben.

It is through wonder that men now begin and originally began to philosophize; wondering in the first place at obvious perplexities, and then by gradual progression raising questions about the greater matters too.

So more friends than suffice for one's own life are superfluous, and a hindrance to noble loving; there is therefore no need of them. In the case of friends for pleasure, too, a few are enough, as a little seasoning in food is enough. (page 177)

Aristotle was to verge from his mentor in the Poetics, recognizing the light both tragic drama and epic poetry shed on the human condition.

There is only one driving force: The desire.

For though the wish for friendship comes quickly, friendship does not.

Polygnotus depicted men as nobler than they are, Pauson as less noble, Dionysius drew them true to life.

As, in the serious style, Homer is pre-eminent among poets, for he alone combined dramatic form with excellence of imitation, so he too first laid down the main lines of Comedy, by dramatising the ludicrous instead of writing personal satire.

We may compare the opinion that the older actors entertained of their successors. Mynniscus used to call Callippides 'ape' on account of the extravagance of his action, and the same view was held of Pindarus.

Poetry is more philosophical and more serious than history; poetry utters universal truths, history particular statements.

Aeschylus first introduced a second actor; he diminished the importance of the Chorus, and assigned the leading part to the dialogue.

Because poets are by nature like us, those who are dominated by some passion seem most convincing; The outraged roar and angry are angry most truthfully.

For the iambic is, of all measures, the most colloquial: we see it in the fact that conversational speech runs into iambic lines more frequently than into any other kind of verse; rarely into hexameters, and only when we drop the colloquial intonation.

Two parts, then, of the Plot — Reversal of the Situation and Recognition — turn upon surprises. A third part is the Scene of Suffering. The Scene of Suffering is a destructive or painful action, such as death on the stage, bodily agony, wounds and the like.

A plot of this kind would, doubtless, satisfy the moral sense, but it would inspire neither pity nor fear; for pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves.

In all things which have a plurality of parts, and which are not a total aggregate but a whole of some sort distinct from the parts, there is some cause ; inasmuch as even in bodies sometimes contact is the cause of their unity, and sometimes viscosity or some other such quality.But a definition is one account, not by connection, like the Iliad, but because it is a definition of one thing.

There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves. This condition would be that each instrument could do its own work, at the word of command or by intelligent anticipation, like the statues of Daedalus or the tripods made by Hephaestus, of which Homer relates that Of their own motion they entered the conclave of Gods on Olympus, as if a shuttle should weave of itself, and a plectrum should do its own harp playing.

and Euripides, faulty though he may be in the general management of his subject, yet is felt to be the most tragic of the poets.

For liberality resides not in the multitude of the gifts but in the state of character of the giver.

That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfil.

Saber que tal remedio ha curado a Calias atacado de tal enfermedad, que ha producido el mismo efecto en Sócrates y en muchos otros tomados individualmente, constituye la experiencia; pero saber que tal remedio ha curado toda clase de enfermos atacados de cierta enfermedad, los flemáticos, por ejemplo, los biliosos o los calenturientos, es arte.

The Deus ex Machina should be employed only for events external to the drama, — for antecedent or subsequent events, which lie beyond the range of human knowledge, and which require to be reported or foretold; for to the gods we ascribe the power of seeing all things.

So too the poet, in representing men who are irascible or indolent, or have other defects of character, should preserve the type and yet ennoble it.

These are the three things—volume of sound, modulation of pitch, and rhythm—that a speaker bears in mind. It is those who do bear them in mind who usually win prizes in the dramatic contests; and just as in drama the actors now count for more than the poets, so it is in the contests of public life, owing to the defects of our political institutions.