Greek philosopher (384 B.C. - 322 B.C.)
It may then be asked whether there is but one mode of impression for all the senses, seeing that taste and touch are acted upon by contact, and the other senses from a distance? But yet this is a seeming difference only, for we perceive the hard and the soft, as we do the odorous, the sonorous, and the visible, through media; with this difference, that the former impressions are made by objects close to, and the latter by objects at a distance from us. On which account, as we perceive all things through a medium, the medium, in the case of bodies close to us, escapes our attention; but if, as we have already said, we could be sensible of all tangible impressions through a membraneous substance, without our being conscious of their having been so transmitted, we should then be situated as we now are, when in water or air; for so situated, we seem to touch bodies directly, and to have no impression from them through a medium.
ARISTOTLE
On the Vital Principle
There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions--that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.
ARISTOTLE
Rhetoric
Our statements will be adequate if made with as much clearness as the matter allows.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
On a similar principle they consider that to know right and wrong is nothing clever, because what the laws speak about it cannot be hard to understand. But this is not justice, except incidentally: it is when actions are done or awards are made in a certain way that they become just.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
For pleasure is a state of soul, and to each man that which he is said to be a lover of is pleasant.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
For the doubt is, whether it is possible for a man really to be wronged with his own consent, or not possible, but the act must always be done to him against his will, just as the doing a wrong must always be intentional; and again, whether the being wronged is wholly this way or that, (as the doing wrong is entirely a voluntary act,) or one kind of it is voluntary and another kind involuntary. And similarly in the case of being justly dealt with: for all just dealing is voluntary, so that it is reasonable there should be set opposite to both cases, (i.e. both the being wrongly and the being fairly treated,) the being so willingly or unwillingly. But it would seem a strange thing, in the case of being justly dealt with likewise, if it is wholly with one's consent; for some persons are justly dealt with without their consent.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
A family, to be complete, must consist of freemen and slaves; and as every complex object naturally resolves itself into simple elements, we must consider the elements of a family--the master and servant, the husband and wife, the father and children; what all of these are in themselves, and what are the relations which they naturally and properly bear to each other.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
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.
ARISTOTLE
Metaphysics
Nature flies from the infinite, for the infinite is unending or imperfect, and Nature ever seeks to amend.
ARISTOTLE
On the Generation of Animals
Comedy is, as we have said, an imitation of characters of a lower type--not, however, in the full sense of the word bad, the ludicrous being merely a subdivision of the ugly.
ARISTOTLE
Poetics
Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions.
ARISTOTLE
Poetics
Concerning things which exist or will exist inevitably, or which cannot possibly exist or take place, no counsel can be given.
ARISTOTLE
Rhetoric
Neglect of an effective birth control policy is a never-failing source of poverty which, in turn, is the parent of revolution and crime.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
Communities could not subsist without foresight to discern, as well as exertion to effectuate the measures requisite for their safety. Men capable of discerning those measures, are made for authority; and men merely capable of effectuating them by bodily labor, are made for obedience.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
The majority of mankind would seem to be beguiled into error by pleasure, which, not being really a good, yet seems to be so. So that they indiscriminately choose as good whatsoever gives them pleasure, while they avoid all pain alike as evil.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
In the human constitution, therefore, mind governs matter absolutely and despotically; but reason governs appetite with a far more limited sway.
ARISTOTLE
Politics