Politics by Aristotle Quotes

“It is not possible to rule well without having been ruled.”

“Democracy arose from men’s thinking that if they are equal in any respect they are equal absolutely.”

“The regime is an arrangement of a city with respect to its offices, particularly the one that has authority over all matters.”

“The happy life is one in accordance with virtue and unimpeded.”

“Let us presuppose this much, that the best way of life both separately for each individual and in common for cities is that accompanied by virtue—virtue that is equipped to such an extent as to allow them to take part in actions that accord with virtue.”

“Justice therefore demands that no one should do more ruling than being ruled, but that all should have their turn.”

“It is evident, then, that it is better for property to be private, but to make it common in use.”

“The political good is justice, and this is the common advantage.”

“One ought not even consider that a particular citizen belongs to himself, but rather that all belong to the city; for each is part of the city.”

“It is impossible for the whole to be happy unless all, or most or some, of its parts possess happiness.”

“The basic premise of the democratic sort of regime is freedom.”

“But obviously a state which becomes progressively more and more of a unity will cease to be a state at all. Plurality of numbers is natural in a state; and the farther it moves away from plurality towards unity, the less of a state it becomes and the more a household, and the household in turn an individual.”

“Men engage in factional conflict through fear, both when they have committed injustice and are frightened of paying the penalty, and when they are about to suffer injustice and wish to forestall it.”

“For as man is the best of all animals when he has reached his full development, so he is worst of all when divorced from law and justice.”

“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.”

“For where the laws do not rule there is no regime.”

“The soul is divided into two parts, of which the one has reason itself, while the other does not have it in itself, but is capable of obeying reason.”

“A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious.”

“From these things it is evident, then, that the city belongs among the things that exist by nature, and that man is by nature a political animal.”

“What is many is more incorruptible; like a greater amount of water, the multitude is more incorruptible than the few.”