Alexander of Aphrodisias Quotes
Alexander of Aphrodisias was a Peripatetic philosopher of the late second and early third centuries AD, head of the Aristotelian school in Athens at the end of the second century, and the most influential ancient commentator on Aristotle. His commentaries on the Prior Analytics, the Topics, the Metaphysics, and the De anima, together with his independent treatises on the soul, on fate, and on mixture, fixed the technical vocabulary of later Greek, Arabic, and Latin Aristotelianism. The quotes below are attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias, organized by topic.
Browse Alexander of Aphrodisias by topic
Alexander of Aphrodisias on Death
-
“Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal.”
As quoted in Alexander the Great (1973) by Robin Lane Fox Unsourced variant : Only sex and sleep make me conscious that I am mortal. -
“Unsourced variant : Only sex and sleep make me conscious that I am mortal.”
Wikiquote
Alexander of Aphrodisias on Knowledge
-
Attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias:
“Aristotle is best read in the order he himself prescribed: from logic, through physics, to first philosophy.”
-
Attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias:
“A commentary is not a substitute for the master; it is a guide for the master's pupils.”
-
“Know ye not that the end and object of conquest is to avoid doing the same thing as the conquered?”
As quoted in Lives by Plutarch , VII, "Demosthenes and Cicero. Alexander and Caesar" (40.2), as translated by Bernadotte Perrin
Alexander of Aphrodisias on Life
-
“Statement upon seeing Bucephalas being led away as useless and beyond training, as quoted in Lives by Plutarch , as translated by Arthur Hugh Clough”
Wikiquote -
“Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers .”
As quoted in the Historia Alexandri Magni of Pseudo-Kallisthenes , 1.37.9-13
Alexander of Aphrodisias on Mind
-
Attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias:
“The active intellect makes possible the act of thinking, as light makes possible the act of seeing.”
-
Attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias:
“Soul is the form of a body equipped to live; nothing in the body is the soul, and nothing in the soul is bodily.”
Alexander of Aphrodisias on Nature
-
Attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias:
“Fate operates within the natural order; it does not abolish the contingency of action.”
Alexander of Aphrodisias on Virtue
-
“Are you still to learn that the end and perfection of our victories is to avoid the vices and infirmities of those whom we subdue?”
As quoted in Lives by Plutarch , as translated by Arthur Hugh Clough -
“For my part, I assure you, I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.”
Quoted by Plutarch in Life of Alexander from Plutarch's Lives as translated by John Dryden (1683) -
“What an excellent horse do they lose, for want of address and boldness to manage him! ... I could manage this horse better than others do.”
Statement upon seeing Bucephalas being led away as useless and beyond training, as quoted in Lives by Plutarch , as translated by Arthur Hugh Clough -
“Shall I pass by and leave you lying there because of the expedition you led against Greece, or shall I set you up again because of your magnanimity and your virtues in other respects?”
Pausing and addressing to a fallen statue of Xerxes the Great Plutarch . The age of Alexander: nine Greek lives . Penguin, 1977. p. 294
Things actually not said by Alexander of Aphrodisias
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Alexander of Aphrodisias but are in fact from someone else. Did Alexander of Aphrodisias say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
-
Did Alexander of Aphrodisias say this? No.
“An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.”
Attributed to Alexander, as quoted in The British Battle Fleet: Its Inception and Growth Throughout the Centuries to the Present Day (1915) by Frederick Thomas Jane, but many variants of similar statements exist which have been attributed to others, though in research done for Wikiquote definite citations of original documents have not yet been found for any of them: I should prefer an army of stags led by a lion, to an army of lions led by a stag. Attributed to Chabrias , who died around the time Alexander was born, thus his is the earliest life to whom such assertions have been attributed; as quoted in A Treatise on the Defence of Fortified Places (1814) by Lazare Carnot, p. 50 An army of… (Disputed.)
-
Did Alexander of Aphrodisias say this? No.
“I should prefer an army of stags led by a lion, to an army of lions led by a stag.”
Attributed to Chabrias , who died around the time Alexander was born, thus his is the earliest life to whom such assertions have been attributed; as quoted in A Treatise on the Defence of Fortified Places (1814) by Lazare Carnot, p. 50 (Disputed.)
-
Did Alexander of Aphrodisias say this? No.
“It is better to have sheep led by a lion than lions led by a sheep.”
Attributed to Polybius in Between Spenser and Swift: English Writing in Seventeenth Century Ireland (2005) by Deana Rankin, p. 124, citing A Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, from 1641 to 1652 (1880) by John Thomas Gilbert Vol. I, i, p. 153 - 157; but in The Histories, which does talk of Alexander the Great, there is only a single reference to lions, and this is largely attributed to Sosibius , even noting that the king (Alexander) wasn't involved in the discussion but only the party of Sosibius; and the idea is not much related to the quote, which is instead the lion and the flock could not safely share the same stall . Polybius, Histories. Book 5, Chapter 35. (Disputed.)
-
Did Alexander of Aphrodisias say this? No.
“I am more afraid of one hundred sheep led by a lion than one hundred lions led by a sheep.”
Attributed to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754 – 1838) Variants: I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep. I am not afraid of an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep. I am afraid of army of 100 sheeps led by a lion. (Disputed.)
-
Did Alexander of Aphrodisias say this? No.
“As one lion overcomes many people and as one wolf scatters many sheep, so likewise will I, with one word, destroy the peoples who have come against me.”
This slightly similar statement is the only quote relating to lions in The History of Alexander the Great, Being the Syriac Version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes (1889) as translated by E. A. Wallis Budge , but it is attributed to Nectanebus (Nectanebo II) . (Disputed.)
-
Did Alexander of Aphrodisias say this? No.
“There are no more worlds to conquer!”
A version of this phrasing is attested in English as early as the early 17th century. John Downame , in The Christian Warfare (1611), writes that Alexander's "great Soveraignty and Monarchy could not bring unto him so much joy and contentment as to restraine teares because there were no more worlds to conquer or as some have it because hearing there were many he had not yet conquered one." Some of the oldest accounts of this, as quoted by John Calvin state that on "hearing that there were other worlds, wept that he had not yet conquered one." This may originate from Plutarch 's essay On the Tranquility of Mind , part of the essays Moralia , with the opposite intended meaning: Alexander wept… (Disputed.)