Background Image
...
The Senses Are Gateways To The Intelligence. There Is Nothing In The Intelligence Which Did Not First Pass Through The Senses.
-Aristotle
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

The Senses Are Gateways

Aristotle
...
The Senses Are Gateways To The Intelligence. There Is Nothing In The Intelligence Which Did Not First Pass Through The Senses.

Understanding the Quote: "the senses are gateways to the intelligence. there is nothing in the..."

This quote by Aristotle reflects deeply on the theme of firsts. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Firsts, Gateways, Senses, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Aristotle interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Aristotle

Aristotle is celebrated for insightful thoughts on firsts and gateways. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 15249
Topic
Firsts
Gateways
Senses
More From Aristotle
Law Is Mind Without Reason.
Law
Mind
Reason
Nature Creates Nothing Without A Purpose.
Purpose
Adoration Is Made Out Of A Solitary Soul Occupying Two Bodies.
Two
Soul
Body
Legislative Enactments Proceed From Men Carrying Their Views A Long Time Back; While Judicial Decisions Are Made Off Hand.
Men
Views
Hands
Money Is A Guarantee That We May Have What We Want In The Future. Though We Need Nothing At The Moment It Insures The Possibility Of Satisfying A New Desire When It Arises.
Money
Guarantees That
Desire
It Is Our Actions And The Soul's Active Exercise Of Its Functions That We Posit (as Being Happiness).
Happiness
Exercise
Soul
I Will Not Allow The Athenians To Sin Twice Against Philosophy.
Philosophy
Sin
Athenians
It Is Our Choice Of Good Or Evil That Determines Our Character, Not Our Opinion About Good Or Evil.
Character
Evil
Choices
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.
Summer
Winter
Quality
Evils Draw Men Together.
Men
Evil
Together
Because The Rich Are Generally Few In Number, While The Poor Are Many, They Appear To Be Antagonistic, And As The One Or The Other Prevails They Form The Government. Hence Arises The Common Opinion That There Are Two Kinds Of Government - Democracy And Oligarchy.
Two
Numbers
Government
It Is Likely That Unlikely Things Should Happen
Unlikely
Should
Happens
The Worst Form Of Inequality Is To Try To Make Unequal Things Equal.
Philosophical
Equality
Egalitarianism
All Men Desire By Nature To Know.
Men
Desire
Awareness
Not To Know Of What Things One Should Demand Demonstration, And Of What One Should Not, Argues Want Of Education.
Demand
Want
Arguing
When The Citizens At Large Administer The State For The Common Interest, The Government Is Called By The Generic Name - A Constitution.
Government
Names
Generic Name
He Who Can Be, And Therefore Is, Another's, And He Who Participates In Reason Enough To Apprehend, But Not To Have, Is A Slave By Nature.
Slave
Reason
Enough
There Are Branches Of Learning And Education Which We Must Study Merely With A View To Leisure Spent In Intellectual Activity, And These Are To Be Valued For Their Own Sake; Whereas Those Kinds Of Knowledge Which Are Useful In Business Are To Be Deemed Necessary, And Exist For The Sake Of Other Things.
Education
Views
Intellectual
The Two Qualities Which Chiefly Inspire Regard And Affection Are That A Thing Is Your Own And That It Is Your Only One.
Inspiration
Two
Inspire
So Virtue Is A Purposive Disposition, Lying In A Mean That Is Relative To Us And Determined By A Rational Principle, And By That Which A Prudent Man Would Use To Determine It. It Is A Mean Between Two Kinds Of Vice, One Of Excess And The Other Of Deficiency.
Lying
Mean
Men
There Must Be In Prudence Also Some Master Virtue.
Virtue
Masters
Prudence
Since The Whole City Has One End, It Is Manifest That Education Should Be One And The Same For All, And That It Should Be Public, And Not Private - Not As At Present, When Every One Looks After His Own Children Separately, And Gives Them Separate Instruction Of The Sort Which He Thinks Best; The Training In Things Which Are Of Common Interest Should Be The Same For All. Neither Must We Suppose That Any One Of The Citizens Belongs To Himself, For They All Belong To The State, And Are Each Of Them A Part Of The State, And The Care Of Each Part Is Inseparable From The Care Of The Whole.
Education
Children
Thinking
That Body Is Heavier Than Another Which, In An Equal Bulk, Moves Downward Quicker.
Moving
Body
Equal
Democracy Is When The Indigent, And Not The Men Of Property, Are The Rulers.
Freedom
Philosophical
Men
Hence Both Women And Children Must Be Educated With An Eye To The Constitution, If Indeed It Makes Any Difference To The Virtue Of A City-state That Its Children Be Virtuous, And Its Women Too. And It Must Make A Difference, Since Half The Free Population Are Women, And From Children Come Those Who Participate In The Constitution.
Children
Eye
Differences
Art Takes Nature As Its Model.
Art
Creativity
Models
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.
War
May
Leisure
Justice Is That Virtue Of The Soul Which Is Distributive According To Desert.
Justice
Soul
Desert
There Is An Error Common To Both Oligarchies And To Democracies: In The Latter The Demagogues, When The Multitude Are Above The Law, Are Always Cutting The City In Two By Quarrels With The Rich, Whereas They Should Always Profess To Be Maintaining Their Cause; Just As In Oligarchies The Oligarchs Should Profess To Maintain The Cause Of The People, . .
Cutting
Errors
Law
The Weak Are Always Anxious For Justice And Equality. The Strong Pay No Heed To Either.
Being Strong
Justice
Pay
He Is Courageous Who Endures And Fears The Right Thing, For The Right Motive, In The Right Way And At The Right Times.
Courage
Way
Endure
When You Feel Yourself Lacking Something, Send Your Thoughts Towards Your Intimate And Search For The Divinity That Lives Within You.
Divinity
Intimate
Lacking Something
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.
Art
War
Long
Happiness Is At Once The Best, The Noblest, And The Pleasantest Of Things.
Happiness
Nicomachean Ethics
That Education Should Be Regulated By Law And Should Be An Affair Of State Is Not To Be Denied, But What Should Be The Character Of This Public Education, And How Young Persons Should Be Educated, Are Questions Which Remain To Be Considered. As Things Are, There Is Disagreement About The Subjects. For Mankind Are By No Means Agreed About The Things To Be Taught, Whether We Look To Virtue Or The Best Life. Neither Is It Clear Whether Education Is More Concerned With Intellectual Or With Moral Virtue.
Education
Character
Mean
Happiness Is The Meaning And The Purpose Of Life, The Whole Aim And End Of Human Existence.
Inspirational
Life
Happiness
But What Is Happiness? If We Consider What The Function Of Man Is, We Find That Happiness Is A Virtuous Activity Of The Soul.
Men
Soul
What Is Happiness
. . . The Man Is Free, We Say, Who Exists For His Own Sake And Not For Another's.
Men
Sake
He Man
He Who Sees Things Grow From The Beginning Will Have The Best View Of Them.
Nature
Science
Views
It Is Their Character Indeed That Makes People Who They Are. But It Is By Reason Of Their Actions That They Are Happy Or The Reverse.
Character
People
Action
Equality Is Of Two Kinds, Numerical And Proportional; By The First I Mean Sameness Of Equality In Number Or Size; By The Second, Equality Of Ratios.
Mean
Numbers
Government
The Greatest Victory Is Over Self.
Greatest Victory
Self
Victory
For The Lesser Evil Is Reckoned A Good In Comparison With The Greater Evil, Since The Lesser Evil Is Rather To Be Chosen Than The Greater. .
Evil
Chosen
Greater
Happiness Is The Settling Of The Soul Into Its Most Appropriate Spot.
Happiness
Beach
Ocean
There Are Some Jobs In Which It Is Impossible For A Man To Be Virtuous.
Jobs
Men
Impossible
The Trade Of The Petty Usurer Is Hated With Most Reason: It Makes A Profit From Currency Itself, Instead Of Making It From The Process Which Currency Was Meant To Serve. Their Common Characteristic Is Obviously Their Sordid Avarice.
Common
Reason
Currency
That Which Is Common To The Greatest Number Has The Least Care Bestowed Upon It
Caring
Numbers
Care
There Is A Foolish Corner In The Brain Of The Wisest Man.
Funny
Humor
Humility
The Excellence Of A Thing Is Related To Its Proper Function.
Philosophy
Educational
Excellence
If Then Nature Makes Nothing Without Some End In View, Nothing To No Purpose, It Must Be That Nature Has Made All Of Them For The Sake Of Man.
Men
Views
Sake
When A Draco Has Eaten Much Fruit, It Seeks The Juice Of The Bitter Lettuce; It Has Been Seen To Do This.
Dragons
Juice
Fruit
The Vigorous Are No Better Than The Lazy During One Half Of Life, For All Men Are Alike When Asleep.
Carpe Diem
Men
Lazy
The Man Who Is Content To Live Alone Is Either A Beast Or A God.
Men
Beast
He Man
Life Is Only Meaningful When We Are Striving For A Goal .
Meaningful
Goal
Life Is
Authority Is No Source For Truth.
Authority
Source
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.
Art
Causes
Action
Greatness Of Soul Seems Therefore To Be As It Were A Crowning Ornament Of The Virtues; It Enhances Their Greatness, And It Cannot Exist Without Them. Hence It Is Hard To Be Truly Great-souled, For Greatness Of Soul Is Impossible Without Moral Nobility.
Greatness
Soul
Ornaments
When You Ask A Dumb Question, You Get A Smart Answer.
Inspirational
Smart
Dumb
We Praise A Man Who Feels Angry On The Right Grounds And Against The Right Persons And Also In The Right Manner At The Right Moment And For The Right Length Of Time.
Anger
Men
Praise
A Good Man May Make The Best Even Of Poverty And Disease, And The Other Ills Of Life; But He Can Only Attain Happiness Under The Opposite Conditions
Happiness
Men
Opposites
Everyone Honors The Wise.
Wise
Honor
Hope Is A Waking Dream.
Inspirational
Positive
Dream
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.
Class
Government
Democracy
For Contemplation Is Both The Highest Form Of Activity (since The Intellect Is The Highest Thing In Us, And The Objects That It Apprehends Are The Highest Things That Can Be Known), And Also It Is The Most Continuous, Because We Are More Capable Of Continuous Contemplation Than We Are Of Any Practical Activity.
Ethics
Contemplation
Form
For Any Two Portions Of Fire, Small Or Great, Will Exhibit The Same Ratio Of Solid To Void; But The Upward Movement Of The Greater Is Quicker Than That Of The Less, Just As The Downward Movement Of A Mass Of Gold Or Lead, Or Of Any Other Body Endowed With Weight, Is Quicker In Proportion To Its Size.
Science
Fire
Two
A Tragedy Is That Moment Where The Hero Comes Face To Face With His True Identity.
Hero
True Identity
Tragedy
The Secret To Humor Is Surprise.
Philosophical
Humor
Secret Love
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.
Life
Success
Wisdom
Wit Is Educated Insolence.
Inspirational
Witty
Humorous
Happiness Lies In Virtuous Activity, And Perfect Happiness Lies In The Best Activity, Which Is Contemplative
Lying
Philosophical
Perfect
The Sun, Moving As It Does, Sets Up Processes Of Change And Becoming And Decay, And By Its Agency The Finest And Sweetest Water Is Every Day Carried Up And Is Dissolved Into Vapour And Rises To The Upper Region, Where It Is Condensed Again By The Cold And So Returns To The Earth. This, As We Have Said Before, Is The Regular Course Of Nature.
Rain
Moving
Agency
We Laugh At That Which We Cannot Bear To Face.
Laughing
Faces
Bears
Beauty Is A Gift Of God.
Beauty
Gift From God
To Give A Satisfactory Decision As To The Truth It Is Necessary To Be Rather An Arbitrator Than A Party To The Dispute.
Party
Giving
Decision
Happiness Is Self-connectedness.
Self
Connectedness
The Right Constitutions, Three In Number- Kingship, Aristocracy, And Polity- And The Deviations From These, Likewise Three In Number - Tyranny From Kingship, Oligarchy From Aristocracy, Democracy From Polity.
Numbers
Political
Democracy
A Fool Contributes Nothing Worth Hearing And Takes Offense At Everything.
Hearing
Fool
Nonsense
All That We Do Is Done With An Eye To Something Else.
Eye
Thinking
Done
If Everything When It Occupies An Equal Space Is At Rest, And If That Which Is In Locomotion Is Always Occupying Such A Space At Any Moment, The Flying Arrow Is Therefore Motionless.
Arrows
Space
Flying
Happiness Is Prosperity Combined With Virtue.
Prosperity
Virtue
That Judges Of Important Causes Should Hold Office For Life Is A Questionable Thing, For The Mind Grows Old As Well As The Body.
Justice
Judging
Office
Anaximenes And Anaxagoras And Democritus Say That Its [the Earth's] Flatness Is Responsible For It Staying Still: For It Does Not Cut The Air Beneath But Covers It Like A Lid, Which Flat Bodies Evidently Do: For They Are Hard To Move Even For The Winds, On Account Of Their Resistance.
Moving
Cutting
Science
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.
Life
Friendship
True Friend
Irrational Passions Would Seem To Be As Much A Part Of Human Nature As Is Reason.
Passion
Human Nature
Reason
The Self-indulgent Man Craves For All Pleasant Things... And Is Led By His Appetite To Choose These At The Cost Of Everything Else.
Men
Self
Cost
Two Characteristic Marks Have Above All Others Been Recognized As Distinguishing That Which Has Soul In It From That Which Has Not - Movement And Sensation.
Two
Soul
Movement
The Eyes Are The Organs Of Temptation, And The Ears Are The Organs Of Instruction.
Eye
Temptation
Listening
For That Which Has Become Habitual, Becomes As It Were Natural.
Natural
Habitual
You Should Never Think Without An Image.
Thinking
Should
For Suppose That Every Tool We Had Could Perform Its Task, Either At Our Bidding Or Itself Perceiving The Need, And If-like The Statues Made By Dædalus Or The Tripods Of Hephæstus, Of Which The Poet Says That "self-moved They Enter The Assembly Of The Gods" - Shuttles In A Loom Could Fly To And Fro And A Plectrum Play A Lyre All Self-moved, Then Master-craftsmen Would Have No Need Of Servants Nor Masters Of Slaves.
Self
Play
Bidding
Rightness In Our Choice Of An End Is Secured By [moral] Virtue.
Choices
Moral
Virtue
Aristotle Said: "evil Brings Men Together."
Men
Evil
Hatred
Melancholy Men, Of All Others, Are The Most Witty.
Witty
Men
Melancholy
Remember That Time Slurs Over Everything, Let All Deeds Fade, Blurs All Writings And Kills All Memories. Exempt Are Only Those Which Dig Into The Hearts Of Men By Love.
Life
Time
Memories
For The Real Difference Between Humans And Other Animals Is That Humans Alone Have Perception Of Good And Evil, Just And Unjust, Etc. It Is The Sharing Of A Common View In These Matters That Makes A Household And A State.
Real
Animal
Views
The Purpose Of Art Is To Represent The Meaning Of Things. This Represents The True Reality, Not External Aspects.
Art
Reality
Purpose
The Intelligence Consists Not Only In The Knowledge But Also In The Skill To Apply The Knowledge Into Practice.
Practice
Skills
The Misanthrope, As An Essentially Solitary Man, Is Not A Man At All: He Must Be A Beast Or A God.
Men
Misanthrope
Beast
It Is Homer Who Has Chiefly Taught Other Poets The Art Of Telling Lies Skillfully.
Art
Lying
Taught
Hippocrates Is An Excellent Geometer But A Complete Fool In Everyday Affairs.
Science
Engineering
Everyday
Even When Laws Have Been Written Down, They Ought Not Always To Remain Unaltered.
Philosophical
Law
Ought
Pleasure In The Job Puts Perfection In The Work.
Inspirational
Motivational
Positive
Music Directly Imitates The Passions Or States Of The Soul...when One Listens To Music That Imitates A Certain Passion, He Becomes Imbued Withthe Same Passion; And If Over A Long Time He Habitually Listens To Music That Rouses Ignoble Passions, His Whole Character Will Be Shaped To An Ignoble Form.
Music
Passion
Character
We, On The Other Hand, Must Take For Granted That The Things That Exist By Nature Are, Either All Or Some Of Them, In Motion.
Science
Hands
Granted
Men Create The Gods After Their Own Images.
Men
Religion
Atheism
It Is Clear, Then, That Wisdom Is Knowledge Having To Do With Certain Principles And Causes. But Now, Since It Is This Knowledge That We Are Seeking, We Must Consider The Following Point: Of What Kind Of Principles And Of What Kind Of Causes Is Wisdom The Knowledge?
Words Of Wisdom
Principles
Causes
Tools May Be Animate As Well As Inanimate; For Instance, A Ship's Captain Uses A Lifeless Rudder, But A Living Man For Watch; For A Servant Is, From The Point Of View Of His Craft, Categorized As One Of Its Tools. So Any Piece Of Property Can Be Regarded As A Tool Enabling A Man To Live, And His Property Is An Assemblage Of Such Tools; A Slave Is A Sort Of Living Piece Of Property; And Like Any Other Servant Is A Tool In Charge Of Other Tools.
Men
Views
Watches
The Greatest Thing By Far Is To Be A Master Of Metaphor.
Metaphor
Masters
The Educated Differ From The Uneducated As Much As The Living From The Dead.
Life
Death
Education
If You Would Understand Anything, Observe Its Beginning And Its Development
History
Development
Ifs
Tragedy Is An Imitation Not Only Of A Complete Action, But Of Events Inspiring Fear And Pity. Such An Effect Is Best Produced When The Events Come On Us By Surprise; And The Effect Is Heightened When, At The Same Time, They Follow As Cause And Effect. The Tragic Wonder Will Then Be Great Than If They Happened Of Themselves Or By Accident; For Even Coincidences Are Most Striking When They Have An Air Of Design.
Air
Design
Tragedy
In The Laws It Is Maintained That The Best Constitution Is Made Up Of Democracy And Tyranny, Which Are Either Not Constitutions At All, Or Are The Worst Of All. But They Are Nearer The Truth Who Combine Many Forms; For The Constitution Is Better Which Is Made Up Of More Numerous Elements. The Constitution Proposed In The Laws Has No Element Of Monarchy At All; It Is Nothing But Oligarchy And Democracy, Leaning Rather To Oligarchy.
Law
Government
Democracy
A Good Character Carries With It The Highest Power Of Causing A Thing To Be Believed.
Character
Presidential
Carrie
Metaphysics Involves Intuitive Knowledge Of Unprovable Starting-points Concepts And Truth And Demonstrative Knowledge Of What Follows From Them.
Words Of Wisdom
Starting
Metaphysics
Happiness Is The Highest Good
Inspirational
Philosophical
Highest
Wit Is Cultured Insolence.
Humor
Insolence
Wit
...the Life Which Is Best For Men, Both Separately, As Individuals, And In The Mass, As States, Is The Life Which Has Virtue Sufficiently Supported By Material Resources To Facilitate Participation In The Actions That Virtue Calls For.
Men
Politics
Action
For It Is Owing To Their Wonder That Men Both Now Begin And At First Began To Philosophize... They Were Pursuing Science In Order To Know, And Not For Any Utilitarian End.
Philosophical
Ignorance
Knowledge
The High-minded Man Does Not Bear Grudges, For It Is Not The Mark Of A Great Soul To Remember Injuries, But To Forget Them.
Men
Soul
Doe
It Is Simplicity That Makes The Uneducated More Effective Than The Educated When Addressing Popular Audiences.
Success
Education
Simplicity
Inasmuch As Every Family Is A Part Of A State, And These Relationships Are The Parts Of A Family, And The Virtue Of The Part Must Have Regard To The Virtue Of The Whole, Women And Children Must Be Trained By Education With An Eye To The Constitution, If The Virtues Of Either Of Them Are Supposed To Make Any Difference In The Virtues Of The State. And They Must Make A Difference: For The Children Grow Up To Be Citizens, And Half The Free Persons In A State Are Women.
Education
Children
Growing Up
Perception Starts With The Eye.
Eye
Perception
The Mathematical Sciences Particularly Exhibit Order Symmetry And Limitations; And These Are The Greatest Forms Of The Beautiful.
Beautiful
Education
Math
The Continuum Is That Which Is Divisible Into Indivisibles That Are Infinitely Divisible.
Continuum
Nowadays, For The Sake Of The Advantage Which Is To Be Gained From The Public Revenues And From Office, Men Want To Be Always In Office.
Men
Office
Want
Whatsoever That Be Within Us That Feels, Thinks, Desires, And Animates, Is Something Celestial, Divine, And, Consequently, Imperishable.
Thinking
Desire
Divine
There Is Always Something New Coming Out Of Africa.
Something New
Coming Out
Great Men Are Always Of A Nature Originally Melancholy.
Men
Melancholy
Great Men
No One Loves The Man Whom He Fears.
Relationship
Fear
Anger
Great Is The Good Fortune Of A State In Which The Citizens Have A Moderate And Sufficient Property.
Citizens
States
Fortune
Such An Event Is Probable In Agathon's Sense Of The Word: 'it Is Probable,' He Says, 'that Many Things Should Happen Contrary To Probability.'
Events
Statistics
Should
It Is Evident, Then, That There Is A Sort Of Education In Which Parents Should Train Their Sons, Not As Being Useful Or Necessary, But Because It Is Liberal Or Noble.
Education
Son
Parent
A Friend Is Simply One Soul In Two Bodies.
Two
Soul
Body
To Be Conscious That We Are Perceiving Or Thinking Is To Be Conscious Of Our Own Existence.
Thinking
Justice
Diversity
Thus It Is Thought That Justice Is Equality; And So It Is, But Not For All Persons, Only For Those That Are Equal. Inequality Also Is Thought To Be Just; And So It Is, But Not For All, Only For The Unequal. We Make Bad Mistakes If We Neglect This For Whom When We Are Deciding What Is Just. The Reason Is That We Are Making Judgements About Ourselves, And People Are Generally Bad Judges Where Their Own Interests Are Involved.
Mistake
Justice
Judging
Whether If Soul Did Not Exist Time Would Exist Or Not, Is A Question That May Fairly Be Asked; For If There Cannot Be Someone To Count There Cannot Be Anything That Can Be Counted, So That Evidently There Cannot Be Number; For Number Is Either What Has Been, Or What Can Be, Counted.
Numbers
Soul
May
What It Lies In Our Power To Do, It Lies In Our Power Not To Do.
Inspirational
Happiness
Lying
Some Persons Hold That, While It Is Proper For The Lawgiver To Encourage And Exhort Men To Virtue On Moral Grounds, In The Expectation That Those Who Have Had A Virtuous Moral Upbringing Will Respond, Yet He Is Bound To Impose Chastisement And Penalties On The Disobedient And Ill-conditioned, And To Banish The Incorrigible Out Of The State Altogether. For (they Argue) Although The Virtuous Man, Who Guides His Life By Moral Ideals, Will Be Obedient To Reason, The Base, Whose Desires Are Fixed On Pleasure, Must Be Chastised By Pain, Like A Beast Of Burden.
Pain
Men
Law
Even When Laws Have Been Written Down, They Ought Not Always To Remain Unaltered. As In Other Sciences, So In Politics, It Is Impossible That All Things Should Be Precisely Set Down In Writing; For Enactments Must Be Universal, But Actions Are Concerned With Particulars. Hence We Infer That Sometimes And In Certain Cases Laws May Be Changed.
Writing
Law
Justice
In The Case Of Some People, Not Even If We Had The Most Accurate Scientific Knowledge, Would It Be Easy To Persuade Them Were We To Address Them Through The Medium Of That Knowledge; For A Scientific Discourse, It Is The Privilege Of Education To Appreciate, And It Is Impossible That This Should Extend To The Multitude.
People
Appreciate
Addresses
Where Perception Is, There Also Are Pain And Pleasure, And Where These Are, There, Of Necessity, Is Desire.
Pain
Perception
Desire
... The Friendship Of Worthless People Has A Bad Effect (because They Take Part, Unstable As They Are, In Worthless Pursuits, And Actually Become Bad Through Each Other's Influence). But The Friendship Of The Good Is Good, And Increases In Goodness Because Of Their Association. They Seem Even To Become Better Men By Exercising Their Friendship And Improving Each Other; For The Traits That They Admire In Each Other Get Transferred To Themselves.
Exercise
Men
People
All Men By Nature Desire To Know. An Indication Of This Is The Delight We Take In Our Senses; For Even Apart From Their Usefulness They Are Loved For Themselves...
People
Desire
Example
In Bad Or Corrupted Natures The Body Will Often Appear To Rule Over The Soul, Because They Are In An Evil And Unnatural Condition. At All Events We May Firstly Observe In Living Creatures Both A Despotical And A Constitutional Rule; For The Soul Rules The Body With A Despotical Rule, Whereas The Intellect Rules The Appetites With A Constitutional And Royal Rule. And It Is Clear That The Rule Of The Soul Over The Body, And Of The Mind And The Rational Element Over The Passionate, Is Natural And Expedient; Whereas The Equality Of The Two Or The Rule Of The Inferior Is Always Hurtful.
Two
Evil
Soul
He Who Confers A Benefit On Anyone Loves Him Better Than He Is Beloved.
Benefits
Beloved
Philanthropy
Neglect Of An Effective Birth Control Policy Is A Never-failing Source Of Poverty Which, In Turn, Is The Parent Of Revolution And Crime.
Parent
Birth Control
Poverty
It Was Through The Feeling Of Wonder That Men Now And At First Began To Philosophize.
Men
Feelings
Firsts
While Most Of Those Who Hold That The Whole Heaven Is Finite Say That The Earth Lies At The Center, The Philosophers Of Italy, The So-called Pythagoreans, Assert The Contrary. They Say That In The Middle There Is Fire, And That The Earth Is One Of The Stars, And By Its Circular Motion Round The Center Produces Night And Day.
Stars
Lying
Night
The Specific Excellence Of Verbal Expression In Poetry Is To Be Clear Without Being Low.
Expression
Excellence
Lows
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.
Determination
Animal
Men
It Belongs To Small-mindedness To Be Unable To Bear Either Honor Or Dishonor, Either Good Fortune Or Bad, But To Be Filled With Conceit When Honored And Puffed Up By Trifling Good Fortune, And To Be Unable To Bear Even The Smallest Dishonor And To Deem Any Chance Failure A Great Misfortune, And To Be Distressed And Annonyed At Everything. Moreover The Small-minded Man Is The Sort Of Person To Call All Slights An Insult And Dishonor, Even Those That Are Due To Ignorance Or Forgetfulness. Small-mindedness Is Accompanied By Pettiness, Querulousness, Pessimism And Self-abasement.
Ignorance
Men
Self
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.
Drinking
Mean
Exercise
Men Are Good In But One Way, But Bad In Many.
Men
Way
Nicomachean Ethics
The Best Friend Is He That, When He Wishes A Person's Good, Wishes It For That Person's Own Sake.
Wish
Sake
Good Wishes
Those Who Excel In Virtue Have The Best Right Of All To Rebel, But Then They Are Of All Men The Least Inclined To Do So.
Philosophical
Men
Uprising
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.
Men
Diversity
Events
It Will Contribute Towards One's Object, Who Wishes To Acquire A Facility In The Gaining Of Knowledge, To Doubt Judiciously.
Doubt
Wish
Objects
Your Happiness Depends On You Alone.
Depends
Every Wicked Man Is In Ignorance As To What He Ought To Do, And From What To Abstain, And It Is Because Of Error Such As This That Men Become Unjust And, In A Word, Wicked.
Ignorance
Men
Errors
The Ensouled Is Distinguished From The Unsouled By Its Being Alive. Now Since Being Alive Is Spoken Of In Many Ways, Even If Only One Of These Is Present, We Say That The Thing Is Alive, If, For Instance, There Is Intellect Or Perception Or Spatial Movement And Rest Or Indeed Movement Connected With Nourishment And Growth And Decay. It Is For This Reason That All The Plants Are Also Held To Be Alive . . .
Soul
Perception
Growth
Money Was Intended To Be Used In Exchange, But Not To Increase At Interest. And This Term Interest, Which Means The Birth Of Money From Money, Is Applied To The Breeding Of Money Because The Offspring Resembles The Parent. Wherefore Of All Modes Of Getting Wealth This Is The Most Unnatural.
Mean
Parent
Usury
A Likely Impossibility Is Always Preferable To An Unconvincing Possibility.
Leadership
Greek
Coaching
Friendship Is Two Souls Inhabiting One Body.
Two
Soul
Two Souls
Suffering Becomes Beautiful When Anyone Bears Great Calamities With Cheerfulness, Not Through Insensibility But Through Greatness Of Mind.
Beauty
Beautiful
Gratitude
For 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.
Summer
Blessed
Men
Prudence As Well As Moral Virtue Determines The Complete Performance Of A Man's Proper Function: Virtue Ensures The Rightness Of The End We Aim At, Prudence Ensures The Rightness Of The Means We Adopt To Gain That End.
Mean
Men
Gains
A Flatterer Is A Friend Who Is Your Inferior, Or Pretends To Be So.
Inferiors
Flatterer
[the Virtues] Cannot Exist Without Prudence. A Proof Of This Is That Everyone, Even At The Present Day, In Defining Virtue, After Saying What Disposition It Is [i.e. Moral Virtue] And Specifying The Things With Which It Is Concerned, Adds That It Is A Disposition Determined By The Right Principle; And The Right Principle Is The Principle Determined By Prudence.
Defining
Principles
Add
Have A Definite, Clear, Practical Ideal - A Goal, An Objective.
Inspirational
Goal
Project Management
We Are Not Angry With People We Fear Or Respect, As Long As We Fear Or Respect Them; You Cannot Be Afraid Of A Person And Also At The Same Time Angry With Him.
Long
People
Persons
Love Is The Cause Of Unity In All Things.
Love
Unity
Causes
Therefore, Even The Lover Of Myth Is A Philosopher; For Myth Is Composed Of Wonder.
Philosopher
Lovers
Wonder
Any Change Of Government Which Has To Be Introduced Should Be One Which Men, Starting From Their Existing Constitutions, Will Be Both Willing And Able To Adopt, Since There Is Quite As Much Trouble In The Reformation Of An Old Constitution As In The Establishment Of A New One, Just As To Unlearn Is As Hard As To Learn.
Men
Able
Constitution
Wickedness Is Nourished By Lust.
Lust
Wickedness
To Know What Virtue Is Is Not Enough; We Must Endeavor To Possess And To Practice It, Or In Some Other Manner Actually Ourselves To Become Good.
Practice
Virtue
Enough
They Should Rule Who Are Able To Rule Best.
Government
Able
Should
So We Must Lay It Down That The Association Which Is A State Exists Not For The Purpose Of Living Together But For The Sake Of Noble Actions.
Political
Together
Association
The Soul Is The Cause Or Source Of The Living Body. The Terms Cause And Source Have Many Senses. But The Soul Is The Cause Of Its Body Alike In All Three Senses Which We Explicitly Recognize. It Is (a) The Source Or Origin Of Movement, It Is (b) The End, It Is (c) The Essence Of The Whole Living Body.
Essence
Soul
Three
If The Hammer And The Shuttle Could Move Themselves, Slavery Would Be Unnecessary.
Moving
Atheism
Would Be
It Is Better For A City To Be Governed By A Good Man Than By Good Laws.
Men
Law
Cities
No One Praises Happiness As One Praises Justice, But We Call It A 'blessing,' Deeming It Something Higher And More Divine Than Things We Praise.
Happiness
Blessing
Justice
There Also Appears To Be Another Element In The Soul, Which, Though Irrational, Yet In A Manner Participates In Rational Principle.
Soul
Principles
Elements
Those Whose Days Are Consumed In The Low Pursuits Of Avarice, Or The Gaudy Frivolties Of Fashion, Unobservant Of Nature's Lovelinessof Demarcation, Nor On Which Side Thereof An Intermediate Form Should Lie.
Fashion
Nature
Lying
Wicked Me Obey From Fear; Good Men,from Love.
Love
Inspirational
Heartbreak
Democracy Arises Out Of The Notion That Those Who Are Equal In Any Respect Are Equal In All Respects; Because Men Are Equally Free, They Claim To Be Absolutely Equal.
Witty
Equality
Men
Wicked Men Obey Out Of Fear. Good Men, Out Of Love
Men
Good Man
Wicked
Plot Is Character Revealed By Action.
Character
Plot
Action
Happiness Belongs To The Self Sufficient.
Inspirational
Happiness
Happy
Bashfulness Is An Ornament To Youth, But A Reproach To Old Age.
Philosophical
Age
Ornaments
In The Many Forms Of Government Which Have Sprung Up There Has Always Been An Acknowledgement Of Justice And Proportionate Equality, Although Mankind Fail In Attaining Them, As Indeed I Have Already Explained. Democracy, For Example, Arises Out Of The Notion That Those Who Are Equal In Any Respect Are Equal In All Respects; Because Men Are Equally Free, They Claim To Be Absolutely Equal.
Men
Sprung Up
Justice
The Young Are Permanently In A State Resembling Intoxication.
Time
Philosophical
Youth
The Soul Is The Form Of The Body
Soul
Body
Form
Our Account Does Not Rob The Mathematicians Of Their Science... In Point Of Fact They Do Not Need The Infinite And Do Not Use It.
Doe
Needs
Use
Goodness Is To Do Good To The Deserving And Love The Good And Hate The Wicked, And Not To Be Eager To Inflict Punishment Or Take Vengeance, But To Be Gracious And Kindly And Forgiving.
Forgiveness
Hate
Punishment
I Seek To Bring Forth What You Almost Already Know.
Knows
The Heart Is The Perfection Of The Whole Organism. Therefore The Principles Of The Power Of Perception And The Souls Ability To Nourish Itself Must Lie In The Heart.
Lying
Heart
Perfection
The Gods Too Are Fond Of A Joke.
Inspirational
Life
God
Happiness Is Essentially Perfect; So That The Happy Man Requires In Addition The Goods Of The Body, External Goods And The Gifts Of Fortune, In Order That His Activity May Not Be Impeded Through Lack Of Them.
Happiness
Men
Order
Laws, When Good, Should Be Supreme; And That The Magistrate Or Magistrates Should Regulate Those Matters Only On Which The Laws Are Unable To Speak With Precision Owing To The Difficulty Of Any General Principle Embracing All Particulars.
Law
Justice
Principles
We Are Better Able To Study Our Neighbours Than Ourselves, And Their Actions Than Our Own.
Able
Action
Study
Trending Author
Ellen Hollman
Kathleen Blanco
Alvar Aalto
Edward Everett
John Quincy Adams
Vera Farmiga
Category
Information