Aristotle Quotations

Dignity, humor, society, youth, misfortune -- these are just a few of the subjects that Aristotle expressed his views on. Given below is a collection of my favorite Aristotle quotations. With trademark forthrightness, Aristotle presents compelling ideas about human existence.

• The gods too are fond of a joke.
  
  
• The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.
  
  
• To give a satisfactory decision as to the truth it is necessary to be rather an arbitrator than a party to the dispute.
  
  
• We are what we repeatedly do.
  
  
• Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.
  
  
• Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
  
  
• Education is the best provision for old age.
  
  
• Hope is a waking dream.
  
  
• All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
  
  
• Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
  
  
• Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.
  
  
• In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities.
  
  
• It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
  
  
• Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.
  
  
• I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.
  
  
• All men by nature desire knowledge.
  
  
• It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way.