Aristotle Quotations
Many based on Diogenes Laertius.
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The chief good he (Aristotle) has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.
- Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xiii.
- We make war that we may live in peace.
Nicomachean Ethics, bk. 10, ch. 7, sct. 1177b.
- Aristotle said melancholy men of all others are most witty.
Robert Burton (1577–1640)
- Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, 'That when they speak truth they are not believed.'
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
The question was put to him, what hope is; and his answer was, 'The dream of a waking man.'
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
He used to say that personal beauty was a better introduction than any letter; 18 but others say that it was Diogenes who gave this description of it, while Aristotle called beauty 'the gift of God;' that Socrates called it 'a short-lived tyranny;' Theophrastus, 'a silent deceit;' Theocritus, 'an ivory mischief;' Carneades, 'a sovereignty which stood in need of no guards.'
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
On one occasion Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated: 'As much,' said he, 'as the living are to the dead.'
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
He was once asked what a friend is, and his answer was, 'One soul abiding in two bodies.'
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
Asked what he gained from philosophy, he answered, 'To do without being commanded what others do from fear of the laws.'
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
The question was once put to him, how we ought to behave to our friends; and the answer he gave was, 'As we should wish our friends to behave to us.'
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
He used to define justice as 'a virtue of the soul distributing that which each person deserved.'
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
Another of his sayings was, that education was the best viaticum of old age.
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi.
The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xiii.
He used to teach that God is incorporeal, as Plato also asserted, and that his providence extends over all the heavenly bodies.
Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xiii.
