Talk:Aristotle

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Older comments[edit]

I noticed that there was a quote from Nicomachaen Ethics (Book II Chapter 9 Para 1) listed as "Attributed" rather than in the N.E. section. I put the Nicomachaen Ethics quote ("..any one can get angry...") in the N.E. section. Being new to Wikiquote, I wasn't sure I should pull the slightly different Attributed quote out. Given the injunction to "be bold", I went ahead and did it anyway. (JesseFreeman)

I did the same thing as well as adding another significant quote from the NE (kopasa)

Thank you for your editing. Folks, how do you think we make effort to put the source as same as other books according Berlin academy edition? --Aphaia 10:21, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Made some preliminary edits for overhauling this page: (1) added "Note on references" to mention the Bekker numbers; (2) added "Sources"; (3) split out 3 mislabeled quotations from the Poetics and gave them the proper Bekker numbers. As time permits, I hope to add more Bekker numbers, eliminate incorrect quotations, etc.

Suggested standard: When citing by Bekker number, give only the line for the beginning of the quotation: e.g., '1402b3', not '1402b3-6'. Giving a range of lines is pedantic and cluttered. Grommel 20:51, 24 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Blanking[edit]

I removed some objectionable stuff that was written here. (anon)

Thank you. I recommend you not only to remove it, but revert such version, if possible. --Aphaia 10:21, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I removed a the quote "'man is an animal whose characteristic it is to live in a city-state.'" H.D.F Kitto, whom the poster quoted, wrote, "'Man is a political animal' really means, 'man is an animal whose characteristic it is to live in a city-state'" (11). That is a normative statement, an interpretation, of the quote, "Man is a political animal," that can be found in the many English translations that I have read.

Diogenes, "What is love?"[edit]

I just looked through two versions of Lives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes, and I found the "love is a soul inhabiting two bodies" quotation, but not the other one listed below it: "Love is like the sun; without light, there's no life."

Does anyone know if it's in a different work by Diogenes? Or is the quote attributed to another philosopher rather than Aristotle? I can't find it.

Unsourced[edit]

  • Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
  • A friend is a second self.

Exactly what is said in Eth. Nic. 1170b6-7: ἑτερος γὰρ αὐτὸς ὁ φίλος ἐστίν.

  • A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
  • A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.
  • All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
  • All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.
  • All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
  • All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth
  • Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.
  • Bad men are full of repentance.
  • Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
  • Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.
  • Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
  • Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.
  • Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.
  • Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
    • Variants: Dignity does not come in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
      Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
  • Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
  • Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all
  • Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.
  • Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
  • For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
  • For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.
  • Friendship is essentially a partnership.
  • Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy.
  • Happiness depends upon ourselves. [Mentioned in the "Disputed" section]
  • Happiness is a sort of action.
  • If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way.
  • In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
  • In modern times there are opposing views about the practice of education. There is no general agreement about what the young should learn either in relation to virtue or in relation to the best life; nor is it clear whether their education ought to be directed more towards the intellect than towards the character of the soul.... And it is not certain whether training should be directed at things useful in life, or at those conducive to virtue, or at non-essentials.... And there is no agreement as to what in fact does tend towards virtue. Men do not all prize most highly the same virtue, so naturally they differ also about the proper training for it.
  • In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.
  • In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
  • In the arena of human life the honours and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities.
  • It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.
  • It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.
  • It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.
  • It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
  • It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
  • It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Garbled version of Eth. Nic. 1093b23-25, πεπαιδευμένου γάρ ἐστιν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον τἀκριβὲς ἐπιζητεῖν καθ` ἕκαστον γένος. ἐφ`ὅσον ἡ τοῦ πράγματος φύσις ἐπιδέκεται (everything after "educated mind" is pure invention (the Greek actually says " ... to seek precision about anything just to the extent that the nature of its subject permits"

  • It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
  • Life in the true sense is perceiving or thinking.
  • Melancholic men are of all others the most witty.
  • Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way... you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
    • Variant: Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
  • Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.
  • Most people would rather give than get affection.
  • Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
    • Variant: This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.
  • No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.
    • Variants: No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
      There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
      There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.

Attributed to Aristotle by Seneca in On Tranquility of Mind

  • No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.
  • Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
  • Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
  • Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
  • Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
  • Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.
  • Strange that the vanity which accompanies beauty— excusable, perhaps, when there is such great beauty, or at any rate understandable— should persist after the beauty was gone.
  • That in the soul which is called the mind is, before it thinks, not actually any real thing.
  • The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
  • The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
  • The complete is more than the sum of its pieces.
    • Variant: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
  • The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.
    • Variant: Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
  • The gods too are fond of a joke.
  • The good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
  • The greatest crimes are not those committed for the sake of necessity but those committed for the sake of superfluity. One does not become a tyrant to avoid exposure to the cold.
  • The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
  • The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
  • The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.
  • The more thou dost advance, the more thy feet pitfalls will meet. The Path that leadeth on is lighted by one fire— the light of daring burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall obtain. The more he fears, the more that light shall pale— and that alone can guide.
  • The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.
  • The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
  • The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance
  • The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.
  • The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

---Not sure how to do it properly here, but this one is from Book V of Lives of the Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius. The Greek version is here http://www.mikrosapoplous.gr/dl/dl05.html#aristotelis (it's the sentence beginning at verse 18) and there's an English translation here http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dlaristotle.htm which is numbered differently.

  • The secret to humor is surprise.
  • The soul never thinks without a picture.
  • The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice.
  • Teaching is the highest form of understanding
  • The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
  • The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
  • The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life— knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.
  • Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well.
  • Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.
  • Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
  • Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time. (Physics)
  • To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.
  • To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute.
  • To perceive is to suffer.
  • To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.
  • We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
  • We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.
  • Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd rather have been talking.
  • What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
  • What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
  • Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.
  • Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
  • With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it.
  • You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
  • Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.
  • Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
  • Nature performs nothing vainly, and makes nothing unnecessary.

"Amicus Plato..."[edit]

I've heard this expression bears some relation to Ammonius Saccas.

"Worst form of inequality ..."[edit]

Origin appears to be in this 1974 Time article. I don't have access: can anyone find author and date? Gordonofcartoon 05:04, 5 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A similar statement does appear in Politics VII 3.5 (i.e. 1325b): "But that the unequal should be given to equals, and the unlike to those who are like, is contrary to nature, and nothing which is contrary to nature is good."

"The ideal man bears the accidents of life"[edit]

I noticed that the line: "The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances." was in the disputed section with the comment that it ought to be in the Nicomachean Ethics, but research "has thus far not found it." I had a look myself and eventually found it as "the truly good and wise man will bear all kinds of fortune in a seemly way, and will always act in the noblest manner that the circumstances allow" in the Rackham translation at perseus.tufts [1]. I don't have the precise Bekker number but I've added it to this page with "I.1101a". I don't know which is the best translation, but I've gone with Rackham. Singinglemon 23:06, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit"[edit]

Under "Misattributed" is the entry (copied and pasted from the article):

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

The passage from Aristotle is then cited, and within it is the following verbatim extract (copied and pasted from the article):

we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit

How is this then a misattribution? Punctuation? Capitalisation? It seems to me that the quote is Aristotle's actual words (or the translation thereof) and is in addition a true rendition of the meaning of the larger section itself. I suggest the quote is moved to the body of the article under Sourced. LookingGlass (talk) 21:18, 29 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The quote is not from Aristotle, it is from Will Durant discussing Aristotle. This is a simple case of The Rules of Misquotation, Corollary 2C: "Comments made about someone might as well have been said by that person." ~ Ningauble (talk) 13:47, 30 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"He who has overcome his fears will truly be free"[edit]

  • He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.
    • Variant: I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.
    • Quoted in Florilegium by Joannes Stobaeus

Neither a specific citation is given, nor a reference to a secondary source. --Omnipaedista (talk) 14:21, 29 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"How many a dispute..."[edit]

Poorly sourcedː

  • How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms.
    • Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our time by Laurence J. Peter. Bantam books, 1977. p. 24.
--Omnipaedista (talk) 23:31, 29 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

François Fénelon and quote about "Chicken or the egg" problem?[edit]

it was questioned by Math in 2015

I cannot find "egg" in wikiquote.


Eggs were discussed in en:wikisource:History of Animals (Thompson) but question should be indirect.

I don't have time to review all works from Aristotle. D1gggg (talk) 15:16, 7 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Quote removed from page.[edit]

The following quote was removed from the page by another editor. Please discuss whether it should be included on the page. Cheers! BD2412 T 20:33, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

  • It is difficult to be enthusiastic about Aristotle, because it was difficult for him to be enthusiastic about anything… He realized too completely the Delphic command to avoid excess: he is so anxious to pare away extremes that at last nothing is left. He is so fearful of disorder that he forgets to be fearful of slavery; he.is so timid of uncertain change that he prefers a certain changelessness that near resembles death. He lacks that Heraclitean sense of flux which justifies the conservative in believing that all permanent change is gradual, and justifies the radical in believing that no changelessness is permanent. He forgets that Plato’s communism was meant only for the elite, the unselfish and ungreedy few; and he comes deviously to a Platonic result when he says that though property should be private, its use should be as far as possible common. He does not see (and perhaps he could not be expected in his early day to see) that individual control of the means of production was stimulating and salutary only when these means were so simple as to be purchasable by any man; and that their increasing complexity and cost lead to a dangerous centralization of ownership and power, and to an artificial and finally disruptive inequality.
    • Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers (1926), reprinted in Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, 1991

On his feet he wore ...blisters[edit]

This supposed quote appears in many places, but I haven't found a citation to Aristotle. Can someone help? TomS TDotO (talk) 21:11, 21 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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