Wise Reminders From Aristotle

Aristotle (384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher taught by Plato. He wrote about many subjects and his philosophy continues to heavily influence almost every form of knowledge in the West.

Below are words of wisdom from Aristotle.

"Be a free thinker and don't accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in."

"The most important relationship we can all have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. To know yourself, you must spend time with yourself, you must not be afraid to be alone. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."

"The more you know, the more you know you don't know."

"Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing."

"Happiness is a quality of the soul...not a function of one's material circumstances."

"Our problem is not that we aim too high and miss, but that we aim too low and hit."

"A fool contributes nothing worth hearing and takes offense at everything."

"It is our choice of good or evil that determines our character, not our opinion about good or evil."

"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal."

"Tyrants preserve themselves by sowing fear and mistrust among the citizens by means of spies, by distracting them with foreign wars, by eliminating men of spirit who might lead a revolution, by humbling the people, and making them incapable of decisive action."

"Only an armed people can be truly free. Only an unarmed people can ever be enslaved."

"Life is only meaningful when we are striving for a goal."

"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."

"Think as the wise men think, but talk like the simple people do."

"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."

"A friend of everyone is a friend of no one"

"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor."

"We are what we repeatedly do... excellence, therefore, isn't just an act, but a habit and life isn't just a series of events, but an ongoing process of self-definition."

"The society that loses its grip on the past is in danger, for it produces men who know nothing but the present, and who are not aware that life had been, and could be, different from what it is."

"The tyrant, who in order to hold his power, suppresses every superiority, does away with good men, forbids education and light, controls every movement of the citizens and, keeping them under a perpetual servitude, wants them to grow accustomed to baseness and cowardice, has his spies everywhere to listen to what is said in the meetings, and spreads dissension and calumny among the citizens and impoverishes them, is obliged to make war in order to keep his subjects occupied and impose on them permanent need of a chief."

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self."

"Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also to those who need it so much."

"Find the good. Seek the Unity. Ignore the divisions among us."

"The fool tells me his reason; the wise man persuades me with my own."

"No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness."

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

"The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his circumstances."

"Character is revealed through action."

"What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good."

"He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander."

"Doubt is the beginning of wisdom."

"At the intersection where your gifts, talents, and abilities meet a human need; therein you will discover your purpose."

"Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled ; and by doing brave acts, we become brave."

"If something's bound to happen, it will happen. Right time, right person, and for the best reason."

"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think."

"Before you heal the body you must first heal the mind."

"He who has overcome his fears will truly be free."

"Let us first understand the facts and then we may seek the cause."

"Wise people have an inward sense of what is beautiful, and the highest wisdom is to trust this intuition and be guided by it."

Copyright © Stephen Petullo, Scott Petullo