Aristotle Quotes
Aristotle's surviving works are lecture notes on ethics, politics, logic and nature. The quotes below are from those works, cited by the standard Bekker page numbers used in every edition. Several of the most shared “Aristotle quotes” are not his.
4 real Aristotle quotes, with sources
“All men by nature desire to know.”Aristotle — Metaphysics 1.1, 980a
“We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”Aristotle — Nicomachean Ethics 2.1, 1103b (tr. W. D. Ross)
“One swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.”Aristotle — Nicomachean Ethics 1.7, 1098a (tr. W. D. Ross)
“Man is by nature a political animal.”Aristotle — Politics 1.2, 1253a
Famous quotes Aristotle never said
“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.”From the historian Will Durant's summary of Aristotle in The Story of Philosophy (1926), not from Aristotle himself.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”Not in Aristotle. The closest real line, Nicomachean Ethics 1.3, says an educated person looks for only as much precision as the subject allows.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”Not found in any of Aristotle's works. “Know thyself” was an older Greek maxim inscribed at Delphi.
Who was Aristotle?
A student of Plato and tutor to the young Alexander the Great, Aristotle founded the Lyceum in Athens and wrote on almost everything: logic, biology, ethics, politics, poetry and physics. His idea that character is built through habit still shapes how we think about virtue. Read more on Wikipedia.
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What is Aristotle's most famous quote?
One of the best known is “All men by nature desire to know.” (Metaphysics 1.1, 980a)
Did Aristotle really say “Quality is not an act, it is a habit.”?
No. From the historian Will Durant's summary of Aristotle in The Story of Philosophy (1926), not from Aristotle himself.
Did Aristotle really say “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”?
No. Not in Aristotle. The closest real line, Nicomachean Ethics 1.3, says an educated person looks for only as much precision as the subject allows.
Did Aristotle really say “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”?
No. Not found in any of Aristotle's works. “Know thyself” was an older Greek maxim inscribed at Delphi.
Where do these Aristotle quotes come from?
Aristotle's surviving works are lecture notes on ethics, politics, logic and nature. The quotes below are from those works, cited by the standard Bekker page numbers used in every edition. Several of the most shared “Aristotle quotes” are not his.
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