Aristóteles

Well begun is half done.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

No one loves the man whom he fears.

Nature makes nothing incomplete, and nothing in vain.

We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.

A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.

That man is more of a political animal than bees or any other gregarious animals is evident. Nature, as we often say, makes nothing in vain, and man is the only animal who has the gift of speech.

The whole is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the totality is something besides the parts.

We . . . make war that we may live in peace. Nicomachean Ethics bk. 10, 1177b

Knowing what is right does not make sagacious man.

Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine actions than in the nonperformance of base ones.

A common danger unites even the bitterest enemies.

It would be wrong to put friendship before the truth.

Men are divided between those who are as thrifty as if they would live forever, and those who are as extravagant as if they were going to die the next day.

Teachers, who educate children, deserve more honor than parents, who merely gave them birth; for the latter provided mere life, while the former ensure a good life.

The state exists for the sake of a good life, and not for the sake of life only.

He who is by nature not his own but another’s man, is by nature a slave.

The man who confers a favour would rather not be repaid in the same coin.

If men think that a ruler is religious and has a reverence for the Gods, they are less afraid of suffering injustice at his hands.

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior.

Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil— and, if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty.

That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.

It is not easy for a person to do any great harm when his tenure of office is short, whereas long possession begets tyranny.

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.

Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity.

It is not the possessions but the desires of mankind which require to be equalized.

One swallow does not make a summer; neither does one fine day.

The man with a host of friends who slaps on the back everybody he meets is regarded as the friend of nobody.

It is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal.

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.

This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.

In painting, the most brilliant colors, spread at random and without design, will give far less pleasure than the simplest outline of a figure.

We are better able to study our neighbors than ourselves, and their actions than our own.

Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.

When we deliberate it is about means and not ends.

Men cling to life even at the cost of enduring great misfortune.