Well begun is half done.
Meaning of the quote
"Well begun is half done" means that if you start a task or project well, you've already made a lot of progress. When you begin something in a good way, you're already halfway to finishing it. This quote encourages you to put in the effort to start things right, because that will make the rest of the work much easier.
About Aristotle
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath who made significant contributions to various fields, including natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. He founded the Peripatetic school of philosophy and his teachings and methods of inquiry have had a lasting impact on scholarship and modern science.
More quotes from Aristotle
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Well begun is half done.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Man is by nature a political animal.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Hope is the dream of a waking man.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Most people would rather give than get affection.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
He who hath many friends hath none.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The law is reason, free from passion.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
No one loves the man whom he fears.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Bad men are full of repentance.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Nature does nothing in vain.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in excellence; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Education is the best provision for old age.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Hope is a waking dream.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Wit is educated insolence.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The gods too are fond of a joke.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The soul never thinks without a picture.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
A friend to all is a friend to none.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
All men by nature desire knowledge.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
He who can be, and therefore is, another’s, and he who participates in reason enough to apprehend, but not to have, is a slave by nature.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
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. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The secret to humor is surprise.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Change in all things is sweet.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
A true friend is one soul in two bodies.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
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.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
We make war that we may live in peace.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)
Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.
Classical Greek philosopher and polymath (384-322 BC)