Aristotle Quotes
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath born in Stagira in 384 BC. A student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great, he founded the Peripatetic school at the Lyceum in Athens. The quotes below are attributed to Aristotle, organized by topic.
Aristotle on Happiness
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Happiness is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.”
Aristotle on Knowledge
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“All men by nature desire to know.”
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history, for poetry expresses the universal and history only the particular.”
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Education is the best provision for old age.”
Aristotle on Life
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Hope is the dream of a waking man.”
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“The end of labour is to gain leisure.”
Aristotle on Love
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
Aristotle on Mind
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“The soul never thinks without a picture.”
Aristotle on Nature
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Nature does nothing in vain.”
Aristotle on Politics
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Man is by nature a political animal.”
Aristotle on Truth
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Liars, when they speak the truth, are not believed.”
Aristotle on Virtue
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“The good for man is an activity of the soul in conformity with virtue.”
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Attributed to Aristotle:
“Anyone can become angry — that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”
Things actually not said by Aristotle
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Aristotle but are in fact from someone else. Did Aristotle say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Aristotle say this? No.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Will Durant wrote this in his 1926 book The Story of Philosophy as his own one-sentence paraphrase summarizing Aristotle's discussion of habit and moral character in the Nicomachean Ethics. The phrasing is Durant's; it does not appear in any of Aristotle's surviving works.
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Did Aristotle say this? No.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Despite being widely circulated as Aristotle, this exact phrasing has not been traced to any of his works. The earliest verifiable English-language appearances are from the 20th century and the original author has not been identified. The sentiment is broadly compatible with Aristotelian thought but the formulation is modern.
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Did Aristotle say this? No.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
The injunction to 'know thyself' was a maxim inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, attributed in antiquity to figures such as Thales, Solon, and Chilon long before Aristotle. The English phrasing 'knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom' is a modern restatement and is not from Aristotle.