Quotes from Aristotle

So too then is it with the Virtues: for by acting in the various relations in which we are thrown with our fellow men, we come to be, some just, some unjust: and by acting in dangerous positions and being habituated to feel fear or confidence, we come to be, some brave, others cowards.

Or, in one word, the habits are produced from the acts of working like to them: and so what we have to do is to give a certain character to these particular acts, because the habits formed correspond to the differences of these.

Tolerance and Apathy are the last virtues of a dying society

It is plain then that the wicked man cannot be in the position of a friend even towards himself, because he has in himself nothing which can excite the sentiment of Friendship. If then to be thus is exceedingly wretched it is a man's duty to flee from wickedness with all his might and to strive to be good, because thus may he be friends with himself and may come to be a friend to another.

Por la misma razón la justicia parece ser, entre todas las demás virtudes, la única que constituye un bien extraño, un bien para los demás y no para sí, porque se ejerce respecto a los demás, y no hace más que lo que es útil a los demás, que son o los magistrados o el pueblo entero.

Once more; it is harder, as Heraclitus says, to fight against pleasure than against anger:

Halk y???nlar? aldat?ld?klar? zaman kendilerini kötü ÅŸeyler yapmaya özendirenlere kar?? kin besler.

For moral excellence is concerned with pleasures and pains; it is on account of pleasure that we do bad things, and on account of pain that we abstain from noble ones. Hence we ought to have been brought up in a particular way from our very youth, as Plato says, so as both to delight in and to be pained by the things that we ought; for this is the right education.

One who surpasses his fellow-citizens in virtue is no longer a part of the city. Their law is not for him, since he is a law to himself.

I having stated in a former part of this treatise that men should choose the mean instead of either the excess or defect, and that the mean is according to the dictates of Right Reason;

El que se deja llevar de la cólera en ocasiones dadas contra los que lo merezcan, haciéndolo además de la manera, en el momento, y durante todo el tiempo que convenga, debe merecer nuestra aprobación. Esta es, sépase bien, la verdadera mansedumbre, si la mansedumbre es digna de elogios.

Es una cobardía, digna sólo de un esclavo, sufrir un insulto y dejar que impunemente se ataque a las personas de su cariño.

In support of this claim they point to the words 'comedy' and 'drama'. Their word for the outlying hamlets, they say, is comae, whereas Athenians call them demes — thus assuming that comedians got the name not from their comoe or revels, but from their strolling from hamlet to hamlet, lack of appreciation keeping them out of the city. Their word also for 'to act', they say, is dran, whereas Athenians use prattein.

Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.

to be learning something is the greatest of pleasures not only to the philosopher but also to the rest of mankind, however small their capacity for it; the reason of the delight in seeing the picture is that one is at the same time learning--gathering the meaning of things...

for to perceive an evil at its very first approach is not the lot of every one, but of the politician.

On the other hand, because fortune is needed as an addition, some hold good fortune to be identical with Happiness: which it is not, for even this in excess is a hindrance, and perhaps then has no right to be called good fortune since it is good only in so far as it contributes to Happiness.

In an oligarchy it is necessary to take great care of the poor, and allot them public employments which are gainful; and, if any of the rich insult them, to let their punishment be severer than if they insulted one of their own rank;

We proceed next to consider in what manner property should be regulated in a state which is formed after the most perfect mode of government, whether it should be common or not;

That from genus to species i.e.emplified in 'Here stands my ship'; for lying at anchor is the 'standing' of a particular kind of thing. That from species to genus in 'Truly ten thousand good deeds has Ulysses wrought', where 'ten thousand', which is a particular large number, is put in place of the generic 'a large number'.

Beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction.

The more perfect a nature is, the fewer means it requires for its operation.

Even if our contact with eternal beings is slight, none the less because of its surpassing value this knowledge is a greater pleasure than our knowledge of everything around us.

In the next place, Experience and Skill in the various particulars is thought to be a species of Courage: whence Socrates also thought that Courage was knowledge.