He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

About Aristotle

Portrait of Aristotle

Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, romanized: Aristotélēs; 384–322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings span the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that...

More quotations from Aristotle

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

Man is by nature a political animal.

We make war that we may live in peace.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

More quotations tagged with “society”

A society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure and to another all the burdens of work condemns both classes to spiritual sterility.

—Lewis Mumford

society work inequality class leisure sterility

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

—Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

politics freedom society safety popularity

In our society, we've become myopic and obsessive about one particular kind of love: dyadic love, which takes the form of romance, sex, marriage. As a result we end up asking all the wrong questions. Books about relationships talk about how to "get" the love you need, how to "keep" love, and so on. But the right question to ask is "How do I become a more loving human being?

love relationships society romance marriage sex

To say that there is a case for heroes is not to say that there is a case for hero worship. The surrender of decision, the unquestioning submission to leadership, the prostration of the average man before the Great Man—these are the diseases of heroism, and they are fatal to human dignity.… History amply shows that it is possible to have heroes without turning them into gods. And history shows, too, that when a society, in flight from hero worship, decides to do without great men at all, it gets into troubles of its own.

—Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

history society heroism dignity leadership surrender decision submission hero worship

Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves.

—J. B. Priestley

war society politicians teenagers

History

11 Jul 2015 Added