Aristotle Quotes

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

You can learn all the facts and figures in the world, but if you don't have a kind heart then you're not really educated. Education should involve both the head and the heart. Educating the heart is more concerned with the qualities that make us human, such as empathy, emotional intelligence, altruism, and so on. This, in turn, gives us meaning in our lives.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.

A friend is someone I can contact at any time and expect a quick reply. That’s a trait almost all the people I consider friends have. I can pick up my phone, text them or send them a voice clip and expect that they will get back to me as soon as they can.

A friend to all is a friend to none.

Sometimes friendship requires choosing sides in a conflict, sticking up for them, telling hard truths, keeping their secret, being there during rough times, pledging loyalty, or some other difficult action. You can’t do all that for the whole world. First, you will become worn out and spread too thin. Most importantly, you can’t support two opposing sides. You have to make choices.

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

Most of the time, we become a slave of our habits. It is not so easy to change us in no time. All of us are different in our nature, activities, and ability. Humans learn from society. And what they regularly do, reflects on their character. Excellence is an expected word to all. It only comes to those who are used to it.

We make war that we may live in peace.

Peace, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the absence or the end of the war. Aristotle asserts that the purpose of war is so that human societies can enjoy peace; that boundaries can be established so that society may be well-ordered. In some cases, society makes war to ensure peace, and on the surface, this seems logical, even plausible.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

One of the biggest misconceptions about life is that education stops the minute you leave school or university. Just because we have left formal education doesn’t mean we should stop learning. To move forward in life, it’s necessary to be curious. To educate oneself is to provide the basis to make the most out of the limited time we have.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

For Aristotle, democracy is not the best form of government. As is also true of oligarchy and monarchy, rule in a democracy is for and by the people named in the government type. In a democracy, the rule is by and for the needy. In contrast, rule of law or aristocracy (literally, power [rule] of the best) or even monarchy, where the ruler has the interest of his country at heart, are better types of government.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

Difference between true friendship, which grows through time, and is, according to Aristotle, "a slowly ripening fruit" and acquaintances, maybe also years-long, but that often develop out of interest or are simply "fragile and superficial". Therefore, effortless bonds that most of the time won’t last. True friendships is challenging because it implies having to go through life’s vicissitudes that often divide people. Being friends from an early age is maybe easier because that’s when one develops as a person, day by day, and friends become so close and empathic against anyone and anything.

Man is by nature a political animal.

Man is a “political animal.” In this Aristotle means that man lives in a more “polis”. Man becomes man among others, living in a society governed by laws and customs. The man develops his potential and realizes its natural end in a social context. This is the “good life.” This is not an easy life, but a life of virtue is reflected in the highest good (eudaimonia), often translated as happiness.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

We are the sum of our daily habits. Without realizing it, they grow and grow until we do them automatically. Thus, if you have formed bad habits, they become harder to break, while if you have good habits they are easy to continue with. If you want Quality full things, It needs to become a habit. Otherwise, you’ll find success will always slip from your grasp.

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

Soulmates – some seek & some find without trying. When that relationship makes each other feel complete – your souls merge together even though you are two separate people with individual thoughts. Love can be often bumpy but working “together” can bring happiness into your lives. This is how true love is, it is one soul within two bodies.

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

Patience means the capacity to remain confident, determined, and strong in times of anxiety, and danger and Patience is a great virtue of human beings. Once we achieve on the patience front, we know that it will lead to pleasant ramifications. That is to say, the patience shown will bear fruit. The result will be a source of enjoyment as a result of pain during patience. The bitterness of patience will be forgotten because of the sweetness of its fruit.

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.

Youth is the period of our lives between twenty to thirty years. It is the period of our lives in which we have the maximum intelligence and energy after which the body begins to age. if you have kids or influence over kids, help them help themselves, and start them off in the right direction. By starting young, you develop lifelong habits that inspire you to be helpful.

There is only happiness where there is virtue and serious effort because life is not a game.

Maybe with effort, you won’t achieve what you are hoping for, but without it, you will almost certainly not get it. For the Greeks, being virtuous was a serious and necessary issue. In fact, they considered that only the most virtuous and righteous should get to govern the people. Thus, a virtuous, educated, understanding and empathetic attitude will take you on a much more pleasant road through life.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

The quote explains that a single thing that is made of many separate parts can be more important, more useful, more beautiful, or in some other way "greater" than all of the separate parts on their own. For example, if you take all the parts of a watch and lay them out on the table, they will not tell the time the way an assembled watch does. If you take all the pieces of a flower and lay them on the ground, they will not grow and flourish the way a whole flower does.