Aristotle

384 BC — 322 BC • Ancient

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath who studied under Plato at the Academy. He later tutored Alexander the Great and founded his own school, the Lyceum.

His works encompass logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics, biology, and poetics. His Nicomachean Ethics remains one of the most influential works on moral philosophy. He championed the golden mean — the desirable middle between two extremes — as the path to virtue and happiness.

Key Ideas

Golden Mean Four Causes Eudaimonia Virtue Ethics Formal Logic

Influenced By

Plato Socrates

Influenced

Thomas Aquinas Averroes Maimonides Western Science

Notable Quotes

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
— Nicomachean Ethics

"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
— Metaphysics

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."
— Nicomachean Ethics

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