Aristotle
Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.Collection: Animal
We must not feel a childish disgust at the investigations of the meaner animals. For there is something marvelous in all natural things.Collection: Nature
And this activity alone would seem to be loved for its own sake; for nothing arises from it apart from the contemplating, while from practical activities we gain more or less apart from the action. And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.Collection: War
Perception starts with the eye.Collection: Eye
All communication must lead to changeCollection: Communication
There are two distinctive peculiarities by reference to which we characterize the soul (1) local movement and (2) thinking, discriminating, and perceiving. Thinking both speculative and practical is regarded as akin to a form of perceiving; for in the one as well as the other the soul discriminates and is cognizant of something which is.Collection: Thinking
The hand is the tool of tools.Collection: Hands
Meanness is incurable; it cannot be cured by old age, or by anything else.Collection: Anger
Choice not chance determines your destiny [my family motto...credited to Aristotle]Collection: Destiny
A man's happiness consists in the free exercise of his highest faculties.Collection: Freedom
Happiness is activity.Collection: Happiness
There's many a slip between the cup and the lip.Collection: Cups
Dissimilarity of habit tends more than anything to destroy affection.Collection: Affection
The complete man must work, study and wrestle.Collection: Men
We can do noble acts without ruling the earth and sea.Collection: Character
True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.Collection: Happiness
He who is by nature not his own but another's man is by nature a slave.Collection: Men
All that we do is done with an eye to something else.Collection: Eye
Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses.Collection: People
The most beautiful colors laid on at random, give less pleasure than a black-and-white drawing.Collection: Beautiful
Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.Collection: Happiness
The law is reason, free from passion.Collection: Philosophical
If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it... then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.Collection: Tools
The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.Collection: Time
That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon itCollection: Caring
If you string together a set of speeches expressive of character, and well finished in point and diction and thought, you will not produce the essential tragic effect nearly so well as with a play which, however deficient in these respects, yet has a plot and artistically constructed incidents.Collection: Character
Philosophy can make people sick.Collection: Philosophy
Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities.Collection: Inspirational
That in the soul which is called the mind is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing.Collection: Real
Plato is my friend, but truth is a better friend.Collection: Plato
We are what we frequently do.Collection: Character
The pleasures arising from thinking and learning will make us think and learn all the more. 1153a 23Collection: Thinking
Wickedness is nourished by lust.Collection: Lust
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.Collection: Philosophical
Reason is a light that God has kindled in the soul.Collection: Light
A state is an association of similar persons whose aim is the best life possible. What is best is happiness, and to be happy is an active exercise of virtue and a complete employment of it.Collection: Exercise
Youth loves honor and victory more than money.Collection: Honor
Teachers, who educate children, deserve more honour than parents, who merely gave them birth; for the latter provided mere life, while the former ensure a good life.Collection: Teacher
Metaphor is halfway between the unintelligible and the commonplace.Collection: Metaphor
The blood of a goat will shatter a diamond.Collection: Blood
The rattle is a toy suited to the infant mind, and education is a rattle or toy for children of larger growth.Collection: Children
The ideal man takes joy in doing favors for others.Collection: Men
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.Collection: Inspirational
That in the soul which is called mind (by mind I mean that whereby the soul thinks and judges) is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing. For this reason it cannot reasonably be regarded as blended with the bodyCollection: Real
Beauty is the gift of GodCollection: Inspirational
Although it may be difficult in theory to know what is just and equal, the practical difficulty of inducing those to forbear who can, if they like, encroach, is far greater, for the weaker are always asking for equality and justice, but the stronger care for none of these things.Collection: Justice
But what is happiness? If we consider what the function of man is, we find that happiness is a virtuous activity of the soul.Collection: Men
Love is the cause of unity in all things.Collection: Love
A flatterer is a friend who is your inferior, or pretends to be so.Collection: Inferiors