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Character Quotes by Aristotle

151 Character quotes by Aristotle

All Character quotes Aristotle’s page

Aristotle teaches that every virtue sits between two extremes, avoiding both excess and deficiency. He links happiness to the practice of virtue and says character comes from choices, not just opinions. He also notes that a story’s plot shows character through action.

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Character is determined by choice, not opinion.

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We are what we frequently do.

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“The life of active virtue is essentially pleasant.”

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There must be in prudence also some master virtue.

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Our characters are the result of our conduct.

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Happiness is the reward of virtue.

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In justice is all virtues found in sum.

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Character is revealed through action.

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

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We have next to consider the formal definition of virtue.

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“The actions from which [virtue] was produced are also those in which it is exercised.”

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Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

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We can do noble acts without ruling the earth and sea.

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Courage is the mother of all virtues because without it, you cannot consistently perform the others.

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Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

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Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue

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A state of the soul is either (1) an emotion, (2) a capacity, or (3) a disposition; virtue therefore must be one…

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Music has a power of forming the character, and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young.

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“Hence while in respect of its substance and the definition that states what it really is in essence virtue is the observance…

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To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

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It is their character indeed that makes people who they are. But it is by reason of their actions that they are…

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Excellence or virtue in a man will be the disposition which renders him a good man and also which will cause him…

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The vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses…

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He is his own best friend and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own…

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Moral virtue is a mean . . . between two vices, one of excess and the other of defect; . . .…

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The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the…

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Moral virtue is ... a mean between two vices, that of excess and that of defect, and ... it is no small…

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...the life which is best for men, both separately, as individuals, and in the mass, as states, is the life which has…

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A young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur…

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¢Some identify Happiness with virtue, some with practical wisdom, others with a kind of philosophical wisdom, others add or exclude pleasure and…

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If you string together a set of speeches expressive of character, and well finished in point and diction and thought, you will…

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Excellence or virtue is a settled disposition of the mind that determines our choice of actions and emotions and consists essentially in…

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Yet the true friend of the people should see that they be not too poor, for extreme povery lowers the character of…

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If we state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions…

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Some things the legislator must find ready to his hand in a state, others he must provide. And therefore we can only…

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“Again, of all the things that come to us by nature we first acquire the potentiality and later exhibit the activity (this…

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That education should be regulated by law and should be an affair of state is not to be denied, but what should…

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Inasmuch as every family is a part of a state, and these relationships are the parts of a family, and the virtue…

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The purpose of the present study is not as it is in other inquiries, the attainment of knowledge, we are not conducting…

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All are agreed that the various moral qualities are in a sense bestowed by nature: we are just, and capable of temperance,…

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Other authors on Character

More by Aristotle

The knowledge of the soul admittedly contributes greatly to the advance of truth in general, and, above all, to our understanding of Nature, for…

Young men have strong passions and tend to gratify them indiscriminately. Of the bodily desires, it is the sexual by which they are most…

The body is at its best between the ages of thirty and thirty-five; the mind is at its best about the age of forty-nine.

The ensouled is distinguished from the unsouled by its being alive. Now since being alive is spoken of in many ways, even if only…

Although it may be difficult in theory to know what is just and equal, the practical difficulty of inducing those to forbear who can,…

The true forms of government, therefore, are those in which the one, or the few, or the many, govern with a view to the…

All men by nature desire to know.

All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Give a man a poisoned fish, you feed him for the rest of…

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

The mother of revolution and crime is poverty

Obstinate people can be divided into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish.

Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities.

To learn is a natural pleasure, not confined to philosophers, but common to all men.

Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice.