Aristotle Quotes

Every soul pursues the good and does whatever it does for its sake.

The end doesn't justify anything, because all we ever live with is the means.

He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determines the end.

All action is for the sake of some end; and rules of action, it seems natural to suppose, must take their whole character and color from the end to which they are subservient.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one.

Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

The whole history of man is continuous proof of the maxim that to divest one's methods of ethical concepts means to sink into the depths of utter demoralization.

I like to believe that most human beings go about things with a point of view that they're just doing what they feel like they need to do at that time. Sometimes people make bad decisions, but it's not evil, not malicious.

There are two methods of human activity - and according to which one of these two kinds of activity people mainly follow, are there two kinds of people: One use their reason to learn what is good and what is bad and they act according to this knowledge; the other act as they want to and then they use their reason to prove that that which they did was good and that which they didn't do was bad.

Evil, as evil, can never be chosen; and though evil is often the effect of our own choice, yet we never desire it but under the appearance of an imaginary good.

When someone wants something, they must know why they are fighting. This is the only reason to seek a reward.

I guess in the end, it doesn’t matter what we wanted. What matters is what we chose to do with the things we had.

People will speculate about what they want, but that is not my intention.

Altruism is for those who cannot endure their desires.

I am going to tell you a secret. Everything is about wanting. Everything. Things happen because of people wanting. Watch closely, and you’ll see what I mean.

I may have had good reasons. I may have had the best of intentions. But intentions aren’t enough, no matter how good they are. Intentions can lead you to a place where you’re able to make a choice. It’s the choice that counts.

Desire reveals design, and design reveals destiny.

A man's intentions should be allowed in some respects to plead for his actions.

Reason should direct, and appetite obey.

The things he did on purpose were usually no different from the mistakes he made by accident.

I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.

To amend mankind, moralists should show them man, not as he is, but as he ought to be.

Morals were restrictive, but they were grounded on human experience.

Purpose ... is held to be most closely connected with virtue, and to be a better token of our character than are even our acts.