Aristotle - Poetics

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The real difference between democracy and oligarchy is poverty and wealth. Wherever men rule by reason of their wealth, whether they be few or many, that is an oligarchy, and where the poor rule, that is a democracy.

Aristotle
Poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

Aristotle
A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.

Aristotle
A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action … with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.

Aristotle
The specific excellence of verbal expression in poetry is to be clear without being low.

Aristotle
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

Aristotle
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

Aristotle
A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself... with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.

Aristotle
In the Laws it is maintained that the best constitution is made up of democracy and tyranny, which are either not constitutions at all, or are the worst of all. But they are nearer the truth who combine many forms; for the constitution is better which is made up of more numerous elements. The constitution proposed in the Laws has no element of monarchy at all; it is nothing but oligarchy and democracy, leaning rather to oligarchy.

Aristotle
Tragedy is thus an imitation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude…by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

Aristotle
Nature herself, as has been often said, requires that we should be able, not only to work well, but to use leisure well; for, as I must repeat once again, the first principle of all action is leisure. Both are required, but leisure is better than occupation and is its end.

Aristotle
As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready made or constructs it for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in the episodes and amplify in detail.

Aristotle
When couples have children in excess, let abortion be procured before sense and life have begun; what may or may not be lawfully done in these cases depends on the question of life and sensation.

Aristotle
Men must be able to engage in business and go to war, but leisure and peace are better; they must do what is necessary and indeed what is useful, but what is honorable is better. On such principles children and persons of every age which requires education should be trained.

Aristotle
A poet's object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.

Aristotle
Comedy has had no history, because it was not at first treated seriously.

Aristotle
Sophocles said he drew men as they ought to be, and Euripides as they were.

Aristotle
Poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him.

Aristotle
To learn is a natural pleasure, not confined to philosophers, but common to all men.

Aristotle
Man differs from other animals in that he is the most imitative of creatures, and he learns his earliest lessons by imitation.

Aristotle
Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.

Aristotle
So poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history, for while poetry is concerned with universal truth, history treats of particular facts…The particular facts of the historian are what, say, Alcibiades did, or what happened to him.

Aristotle
A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

Aristotle
But the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances.

Aristotle
For the purposes of poetry a convincing impossibility is preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

Aristotle
Sophocles said that he drew men as they ought to be, whereas Euripides drew them as they are.

Aristotle
Tragedy is thus a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude…by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

Aristotle
A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.

Aristotle
Anything whose presence or absence makes no discernible difference is no essential part of the whole.

Aristotle
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.

Aristotle