亚里斯多德与苏格拉底、柏拉图一起被广泛认为是西方哲学的奠基者，他的哲学思想深深影响人类长达两千多年，是整个人类历史上的伟大哲学家。马克思曾称亚里斯多德是“古希腊哲学家中最博学的人物”，恩格斯称他是“古代的黑格尔”。让我们在倾听这样一个历史巨人的教诲时， 不经意地记住一些单词吧！或许你可能会发现原来这些单词如此容易，这是因为你的思想被打动了。

1.A great city is not to be confounded with a populous¹ one.
Confound:混淆
Populous:人口稠密的

2.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. Purpose:目的
3.Bad men are full of repentance².
Repentance：后悔

3.Bashfulness is an ornament³ to youth, but a reproach to old age.
Bashfulness:鲁莽
Ornament:装饰
Reproach:诟病；指责

4.Both oligarch and tyrant⁴ mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
Oligarch:寡头
Tyrant:暴君
Deprive:剥夺

5.Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Guarantee:保证

6.Democracy is when the indigent⁵, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
Democracy:民主
Indigent:贫穷的

7.Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
Dignity:尊严
Consist:组成
Consciousness:意识
Deserve:应该获得

8.Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Prosperity:富足；繁荣
Refugee:避难所
Adversity:不利

9.Hence poetry is something more philosophic⁶ and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.
Philosophic:哲理的
Singular:单一的
Universal:普遍的

10.In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Marvelous:神奇的

11.It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims⁷.
Unbecoming:不得体的；
Utter:说出
Maxim:格言；警句

12.Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence⁸.
Sway:摇摆；被…左右
Reverence:尊敬

13.Nature does nothing in vain.
Vain:徒劳的

14.No excellent soul is exempt⁹ from a mixture of madness.
Exempt:被免除的

15.Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
Perfection:完美

16.Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
prefer: 更喜欢…

17.Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate¹⁰ into despotisms.
Decline:衰退
Degenerate:堕落
Despotism: 专制；暴政

18.Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities¹¹ with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
Calamity:灾难
Cheerfulness:快乐
Insensibility：无动于衷；麻木

19.Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.
Temperance:节制

20.The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
Outward:外表的
Inward:内在的
Significance:实质；重要

21.The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
Essence：本质

22.The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
Circumstances:环境

23.The least initial deviation¹² from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
Initial:初始的
Deviation:偏离
Multiply:大大增加
Thousanfold:一千倍

24.The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness¹³ and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere¹⁴ survival.
Awareness:
Contemplation:深思
Survival:生存

25.The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Sum:综合

26.The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
Inequality:不平等；不公正

27.The young are permanently¹⁵ in a state resembling intoxication¹⁶.
Permanently:永久地；长期地
Resemble:模仿
Intoxication:陶醉；衍生词：动词intoxicate

28.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.
Wax:蜡
Impress:盖印

29.What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition¹⁷ to virtue¹⁸ and the performance of virtuous¹⁹ actions.
Anxious:着急的；
Moral:道德的
Disposition:气质
Virtue: 美德

30.Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening²¹ fruit.
Ripen²⁰:使成熟

31.Wit is educated insolence²².
Wit:幽默
Educated: 有教养的；受过教育的
Insolence:无礼；粗鲁