ARISTOTLE IN QUOTE, POETIC AND POLITIC

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Aristotle (384—322 B.C.E.)

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. "

"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light"

"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous."

"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. "

"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst."

"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal."

"The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain."

"Man is by nature a political animal."

"The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching."

"Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity."

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

"The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival."

"The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances."

"Some animals are cunning and evil-disposed, as the fox; others, as the dog, are fierce, friendly, and fawning. Some are gentle and easily tamed, as the elephant; some are susceptible of shame, and watchful, as the goose. Some are jealous and fond of ornament, as the peacock."

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."

"Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided."

"Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others."

"The energy of the mind is the essence of life."

"Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach."

"Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope."

"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."

"Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way."

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"Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind"

"Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated."

"Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion."

"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."

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self."

"Some kinds of animals burrow in the ground; others do not. Some animals are nocturnal, as the owl and the bat; others use the hours of daylight. There are tame animals and wild animals. Man and the mule are always tame; the leopard and the wolf are invariably wild, and others, as the elephant, are easily tamed."

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy."

"Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile."

"The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons."

"Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms."

"For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all."