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Democracy Appears To Be Safer And Less Liable To Revolution Than Oligarchy. For In Oligarchies There Is The Double Danger Of The Oligarchs Falling Out Among Themselves And Also With The People; But In Democracies There Is Only The Danger Of A Quarrel With The Oligarchs. No Dissension Worth Mentioning Arises Among The People Themselves. And We May Further Remark That A Government Which Is Composed Of The Middle Class More Nearly Approximates To Democracy Than To Oligarchy, And Is The Safest Of The Imperfect Forms Of Government.

-Aristotle

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Democracy Appears To Be

Aristotle

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Democracy Appears To Be Safer And Less Liable To Revolution Than Oligarchy. For In Oligarchies There Is The Double Danger Of The Oligarchs Falling Out Among Themselves And Also With The People; But In Democracies There Is Only The Danger Of A Quarrel With The Oligarchs. No Dissension Worth Mentioning Arises Among The People Themselves. And We May Further Remark That A Government Which Is Composed Of The Middle Class More Nearly Approximates To Democracy Than To Oligarchy, And Is The Safest Of The Imperfect Forms Of Government.

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That Which Is Excellent Endures.

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Happiness Depends Upon Ourselves.

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Happiness Is A Sort Of Action.

Therefore, Even The Lover Of Myth Is A Philosopher; For Myth Is Composed Of Wonder.

Saying The Words That Come From Knowledge Is No Sign Of Having It.

Everything That Depends On The Action Of Nature Is By Nature As Good As It Can Be, And Similarly Everything That Depends On Art Or Any Rational Cause, And Especially If It Depends On The Best Of All Causes.

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He Who Has Never Learned To Obey Cannot Be A Good Commander.

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A Body In Motion Can Maintain This Motion Only If It Remains In Contact With A Mover.

Bodies In Motion

My Lectures Are Published And Not Published; They Will Be Intelligible To Those Who Heard Them, And To None Beside.

The Same Things Are Best Both For Individuals And For States, And These Are The Things Which The Legislator Ought To Implant In The Minds Of His Citizens.

I Count Him Braver Who Overcomes His Desires Than Him Who Conquers His Enemies; For The Hardest Victory Is Over Self.

Hence Poetry Is Something More Philosophic And Of Graver Import Than History, Since Its Statements Are Of The Nature Rather Of Universals, Whereas Those Of History Are Singulars.

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Happiness Is At Once The Best, The Noblest, And The Pleasantest Of Things.

Nicomachean Ethics

It Is Absurd To Hold That A Man Ought To Be Ashamed Of Being Unable To Defend Himself With His Limbs, But Not Of Being Unable To Defend Himself With Speech And Reason, When The Use Of Rational Speech Is More Distinctive Of A Human Being Than The Use Of His Limbs.

Of The Irrational Part Of The Soul Again One Division Appears To Be Common To All Living Things, And Of A Vegetative Nature.

Man, As An Originator Of Action, Is A Union Of Desire And Intellect.

And So Long As They Were At War, Their Power Was Preserved, But When They Had Attained Empire They Fell, For Of The Arts Of Peace They Knew Nothing, And Had Never Engaged In Any Employment Higher Than War.

If You Would Understand Anything, Observe Its Beginning And Its Development

Wise People Have An Inward Sense Of What Is Beautiful, And The Highest Wisdom Is To Trust This Intuition And Be Guided By It.

For Man, When Perfected, Is The Best Of Animals, But, When Separated From Law And Justice, He Is The Worst Of All; Since Armed Injustice Is The More Dangerous, And He Is Equipped At Birth With The Arms Of Intelligence And With Moral Qualities Which He May Use For The Worst Ends. Wherefore, If He Have Not Virtue, He Is The Most Unholy And The Most Savage Of Animals, And The Most Full Of Lust And Gluttony. But Justice Is The Bond Of Men In States, And The Administration Of Justice, Which Is The Determination Of What Is Just, Is The Principle Of Order In Political Society.

Nature Does Nothing In Vain.

Worthless Persons Appointed To Have Supreme Control Of Weighty Affairs Do A Lot Of Damage.

Good Habits Formed At Youth Make All The Difference.

The True End Of Tragedy Is To Purify The Passions.

All Things Are Full Of Gods.

If You See A Man Approaching With The Obvious Intent Of Doing You Good, Run For Your Life. Consider Pleasures As They Depart, Not As They Come.

The State Or Political Community, Which Is The Highest Of All, And Which Embraces All The Rest, Aims At Good In A Greater Degree Than Any Other, And At The Highest Good.

The Virtue Of The Good Man Is Necessarily The Same As The Virtue Of The Citizen Of The Perfect State.

That Which Most Contributes To The Permanence Of Constitutions Is The Adaptation Of Education To The Form Of Government, And Yet In Our Own Day This Principle Is Universally Neglected. The Best Laws, Though Sanctioned By Every Citizen Of The State, Will Be Of No Avail Unless The Young Are Trained By Habit And Education In The Spirit Of The Constitution.

. .we Would Have To Say That Hereditary Succession Is Harmful. You May Say The King, Having Sovereign Power, Will Not In That Case Hand Over To His Children. But It Is Hard To Believe That: It Is A Difficult Achievement, Which Expects Too Much Virtue Of Human Nature.

It Is Not Easy For A Person To Do Any Great Harm When His Tenure Of Office Is Short, Whereas Long Possession Begets Tyranny.

The Soul Is The Form Of The Body

Rhetoric May Be Defined As The Faculty Of Observing In Any Given Case The Available Means Of Persuasion.

The Vices Respectively Fall Short Of Or Exceed What Is Right In Both Passions And Actions, While Virtue Both Finds And Chooses That Which Is Intermediate.

Choice Not Chance Determines Your Destiny [my Family Motto...credited To Aristotle]

Anger Is Always Concerned With Individuals, ... Whereas Hatred Is Directed Also Against Classes: We All Hate Any Thief And Any Informer. Moreover, Anger Can Be Cured By Time; But Hatred Cannot. The One Aims At Giving Pain To Its Object, The Other At Doing Him Harm; The Angry Man Wants His Victim To Feel; The Hater Does Not Mind Whether They Feel Or Not.

If There Is Some End Of The Things We Do, Which We Desire For Its Own Sake, Clearly This Must Be The Good. Will Not Knowledge Of It, Then, Have A Great Influence On Life? Shall We Not, Like Archers Who Have A Mark To Aim At, Be More Likely To Hit Upon What We Should? If So, We Must Try, In Outline At Least, To Determine What It Is.

For This Reason Poetry Is Something More Philosophical And More Worthy Of Serious Attention Than History.

A State Is An Association Of Similar Persons Whose Aim Is The Best Life Possible. What Is Best Is Happiness, And To Be Happy Is An Active Exercise Of Virtue And A Complete Employment Of It.

The Physician Heals, Nature Makes Well.

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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 Arousing Of Prejudice, Pity, Anger, And Similar Emotions Has Nothing To Do With The Essential Facts, But Is Merely A Personal Appeal To The Man Who Is Judging The Case.

Salt Water When It Turns Into Vapour Becomes Sweet, And The Vapour Does Not Form Salt Water When It Condenses Again. This I Know By Experiment. The Same Thing Is True In Every Case Of The Kind: Wine And All Fluids That Evaporate And Condense Back Into A Liquid State Become Water. They All Are Water Modified By A Certain Admixture, The Nature Of Which Determines Their Flavour.

The Soul Never Thinks Without A Picture.

To Write Well, Express Yourself Like The Common People, But Think Like A Wise Man.

A Friend Is A Second Self, So That Our Consciousness Of A Friend's Existence...makes Us More Fully Conscious Of Our Own Existence.

Education And Morals Will Be Found Almost The Whole That Goes To Make A Good Man.

It Is Our Actions And The Soul's Active Exercise Of Its Functions That We Posit (as Being Happiness).

Quid Quid Movetur Ab Alio Movetur"(nothing Moves Without Having Been Moved).

Men Must Be Able To Engage In Business And Go To War, But Leisure And Peace Are Better; They Must Do What Is Necessary And Indeed What Is Useful, But What Is Honorable Is Better. On Such Principles Children And Persons Of Every Age Which Requires Education Should Be Trained.

...happiness Is An Activity And A Complete Utilization Of Virtue, Not Conditionally But Absolutely.

We May Assume The Superiority Ceteris Paribus Of The Demonstration Which Derives From Fewer Postulates Or Hypotheses - In Short, From Fewer Premises.

Those That Know, Do. Those That Understand, Teach.

Where Your Talents And The Needs Of The World Cross; There Lies Your Vocation.

A Life Of Wealth And Many Belongings Is Only A Means To Happiness. Honor, Power, And Success Cannot Be Happiness Because They Depend On The Whims Of Others, And Happiness Should Be Self-contained, Complete In Itself.

It Is The Mark Of An Educated Man To Look For Precision In Each Class Of Things Just So Far As The Nature Of The Subject Admits

The Rattle Is A Toy Suited To The Infant Mind, And Education Is A Rattle Or Toy For Children Of Larger Growth.

Happiness Is Thought To Depend On Leisure; For We Are Busy That We May Have Leisure, And Make War That We May Live In Peace.

Happiness Is A Quality Of The Soul...not A Function Of One's Material Circumstances.

Even If You Must Have Regard To Wealth, In Order To Secure Leisure, Yet It Is Surely A Bad Thing That The Greatest Offices, Such As Those Of Kings And Generals, Should Be Bought. The Law Which Allows This Abuse Makes Wealth Of More Account Than Virtue, And The Whole State Becomes Avaricious.

The Antidote For Fifty Enemies Is One Friend.

Plato Is My Friend, But Truth Is A Better Friend.

The Excellence Of A Thing Is Related To Its Proper Function.

Melancholy Men Of All Others Are Most Witty, Which Causeth Many Times A Divine Ravishment, And A Kinde Of Enthusiasmus, Which Stirreth Them Up To Bee Excellent Philosophers, Poets, Prophets, Etc.

For Both Excessive And Insufficient Exercise Destroy One's Strength, And Both Eating And Drinking Too Much Or Too Little Destroy Health, Whereas The Right Quantity Produces, Increases And Preserves It. So It Is The Same With Temperance, Courage And The Other Virtues. This Much Then, Is Clear: In All Our Conduct It Is The Mean That Is To Be Commended.

The Secret To Humor Is Surprise.

People Of Superior Refinement And Of Active Disposition Identify Happiness With Honour; For This Is Roughly Speaking, The End Of Political Life.

For Well-being And Health, Again, The Homestead Should Be Airy In Summer, And Sunny In Winter. A Homestead Possessing These Qualities Would Be Longer Than It Is Deep; And Its Main Front Would Face The South.

The High-minded Man Is Fond Of Conferring Benefits, But It Shames Him To Receive Them.

Whereas Young People Become Accomplished In Geometry And Mathematics, And Wise Within These Limits, Prudent Young People Do Not Seem To Be Found. The Reason Is That Prudence Is Concerned With Particulars As Well As Universals, And Particulars Become Known From Experience, But A Young Person Lacks Experience, Since Some Length Of Time Is Needed To Produce It.

We Are The Sum Of Our Actions, And Therefore Our Habits Make All The Difference.

The Word Is A Sign Or Symbol Of The Impressions Or Affections Of The Soul.

That Body Is Heavier Than Another Which, In An Equal Bulk, Moves Downward Quicker.

There Is Always Something New Coming Out Of Africa.

One Cannot Say Of Something That It Is And That It Is Not In The Same Respect At The Same Time.

If The Consequences Are The Same It Is Always Better To Assume The More Limited Antecedent, Since In Things Of Nature The Limited, As Being Better, Is Sure To Be Found, Wherever Possible, Rather Than The Unlimited.

The Only Stable State Is The One In Which All Men Are Equal Before The Law.

It Is Clearly Better That Property Should Be Private, But The Use Of It Common; And The Special Business Of The Legislator Is To Create In Men This Benevolent Disposition.

Money Is A Guarantee That We Can Have What We Want In The Future

Guarantees That

Virtue Makes Us Aim At The Right End, And Practical Wisdom Makes Us Take The Right Means.

Suppose, Then, That All Men Were Sick Or Deranged, Save One Or Two Of Them Who Were Healthy And Of Right Mind. It Would Then Be The Latter Two Who Would Be Thought To Be Sick And Deranged And The Former Not!

They Who Are To Be Judges Must Also Be Performers.

The Most Beautiful Colors Laid On At Random, Give Less Pleasure Than A Black-and-white Drawing.

Black And White

The Unfortunate Need People Who Will Be Kind To Them; The Prosperous Need People To Be Kind To.

The Gods Too Are Fond Of A Joke.

Character Is Made By Many Acts; It May Be Lost By A Single One.

The Intelligence Consists Not Only In The Knowledge But Also In The Skill To Apply The Knowledge Into Practice.

Happiness Is An Expression Of The Soul In Considered Actions.

The Investigation Of The Truth Is In One Way Hard, In Another Easy. An Indication Of This Is Found In The Fact That No One Is Able To Attain The Truth Adequately, While, On The Other Hand, No One Fails Entirely, But Everyone Says Something True About The Nature Of All Things, And While Individually They Contribute Little Or Nothing To The Truth, By The Union Of All A Considerable Amount Is Amassed.

In The Human Species At All Events There Is A Great Diversity Of Pleasures. The Same Things Delight Some Men And Annoy Others, And Things Painful And Disgusting To Some Are Pleasant And Attractive To Others.

Everything That Depends On The Action Of Nature Is By Nature As Good As It Can Be.

Wit Is Educated Insolence.

Neither Should We Forget The Mean, Which At The Present Day Is Lost Sight Of In Perverted Forms Of Government; For Many Practices Which Appear To Be Democratical Are The Ruin Of Democracies, . . Those Who Think That All Virtue Is To Be Found In Their Own Party Principles Push Matters To Extremes; They Do Not Consider That Disproportion Destroys A State.

All Men Agree That A Just Distribution Must Be According To Merit In Some Sense; They Do Not All Specify The Same Sort Of Merit, But Democrats Identify It With Freemen, Supporters Of Oligarchy With Wealth (or Noble Birth), And Supporters Of Aristocracy With Excellence.

To Be Always Seeking After The Useful Does Not Become Free And Exalted Souls.

Where It Is In Our Power To Act, It Is Also In Our Power To Not Act.

Nicomachean Ethics

Think As Wise Men Do, But Speak As The Common People Do.

Distance Does Not Break Off The Friendship Absolutely, But Only The Activity Of It.

Long Distance Relationship

But Is It Just Then That The Few And The Wealthy Should Be The Rulers? And What If They, In Like Manner, Rob And Plunder The People, - Is This Just?

It Is Through Wonder That Men Now Begin And Originally Began To Philosophize; Wondering In The First Place At Obvious Perplexities, And Then By Gradual Progression Raising Questions About The Greater Matters Too.

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