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
Bravery is a mean state concerned with things that inspire confidence and with things fearful ... and leading us to choose danger and to face it, either because to do so is noble, or because not to do so is base. But to court death as an escape from poverty, or from love, or from some grievous pain, is no proof of bravery, but rather of cowardice.
Equity is that idea of justice which contravenes the written law.
There are, then, three states of mind ... two vices--that of excess, and that of defect; and one virtue--the mean; and all these are in a certain sense opposed to one another; for the extremes are not only opposed to the mean, but also to one another; and the mean is opposed to the extremes.
Irrational passions would seem to be as much a part of human nature as is reason.
For pleasure is a state of soul, and to each man that which he is said to be a lover of is pleasant.
As our acts vary, our habits will follow in their course.
The greater the length, the more beautiful will the piece be by reason of its size, provided that the whole be perspicuous.
Men are good in but one way, but bad in many.
For it is not true, as some treatise-mongers lay down in their systems, of the probity of the speaker, that it contributes nothing to persuasion; but moral character nearly, I may say, carries with it the most sovereign efficacy in making credible.
Neglect of an effective birth control policy is a never-failing source of poverty which, in turn, is the parent of revolution and crime.
If then it be possible that one contrary should exist, or be called into existence, the other contrary will also appear to be possible.
One can aim at honor both as one ought, and more than one ought, and less than one ought. He whose craving for honor is excessive is said to be ambitious, and he who is deficient in this respect unambitious; while he who observes the mean has no peculiar name.
The brave man, if he be compared with the coward, seems foolhardy; and, if with the foolhardy man, seems a coward.
Wit is well-bred insolence.