Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, whereafter Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and government – and constitute the first comprehensive system...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPhilosopher
One may go wrong in many different ways, but right only in one, which is why it is easy to fail and difficult to succeed.
The high-minded man does not bear grudges, for it is not the mark of a great soul to remember injuries, but to forget them.
There is only one good, that is knowledge; there is only one evil, that is ignorance.
There is simple ignorance, which is the source of lighter offenses, and double ignorance, which is accompanied by a conceit of wisdom.
People never know each other until they have eaten a certain amount of salt together.
The good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties. This exercise must occupy a complete lifetime. One swallow does make a spring, nor does one fine day. Excellence is a habit, not an event.
What is the highest of all goods achievable by action? ...both the general run of man and people of superior refinement say that it is happiness ...but with regard to what happiness is they differ.
In inventing a model we may assume what we wish, but should avoid impossibilities.
All people by nature desire to know. An example of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves.
The true friend of the people should see that they be not too poor, for extreme poverty lowers the character of the democracy.
Nothing in life is more necessary than friendship.
Man by Nature desires to know.
In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead.
That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal. (Travel over any finite distance can neither be completed nor begun, and so all motion must be an illusion.)