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Aristotle on the one who lives outside the city

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum). His own words, in the Politics.

Where and when

c. 335–322 BCEAthens (Lyceum)

about 2,353 years ago

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Aristotle

, Athens (Lyceum)His own words, in the Politics

In plain words, ours

Someone who can't live with others, or needs no one at all, is no part of a city. They're a beast or a god.

…but he that is incapable of society, or so complete in himself as not to want it, makes no part of a city, as a beast or a god.

Aristotle, Politics 1.2Translated by William Ellis (1912)Read the full passage (Aristotle, Politics 1.2, opens gutenberg.org)

What was going on, our summary

In his Politics, Aristotle is arguing that the city comes before the individual, the way a whole body comes before a hand or a foot. No single person, he says, is enough on their own to make a complete state.

Checked claim by claim against: the passage around the quote.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. c. 348/347 BCEabout 19.5 years earlier Plato dies, aged about eighty Also in Athens
  2. 335/334 BCEabout 7 years earlier Aristotle opens his school at the Lyceum Also in Athens
  3. 336–323 BCEDuring it Diogenes meets Alexander Same years
  4. 334–323 BCEDuring it Alexander writes to Aristotle Same years
  5. c. 335–322 BCEThis momentAristotle on the one who lives outside the city
  6. c. 335–322 BCEDuring it Aristotle on being angry the right way More from Aristotle
  7. c. 335–322 BCEDuring it Aristotle on becoming just by just acts More from Aristotle
  8. c. 335–322 BCEDuring it Aristotle on one swallow and happiness More from Aristotle
  9. c. 335–322 BCEDuring it Aristotle on man as a political animal Same passage
  10. 323 BCEabout 4.5 years later Alexander dies in Babylon Same years
  11. c. 324–321 BCEabout 5 years later Diogenes the Cynic dies in Corinth Same years
  12. by 323 BCEabout 5 years later Diogenes makes a tub his home Also in Athens

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

Besides, the notion of a city naturally precedes that of a family or an individual, for the whole must necessarily be prior to the parts, for if you take away the whole man, you cannot say a foot or a hand remains, unless by equivocation, as supposing a hand of stone to be made, but that would only be a dead one; but everything is understood to be this or that by its energic qualities and powers, so that when these no longer remain, neither can that be said to be the same, but something of the same name. That a city then precedes an individual is plain, for if an individual is not in himself sufficient to compose a perfect government, he is to a city as other parts are to a whole;

The quote: but he that is incapable of society, or so complete in himself as not to want it, makes no part of a city, as a beast or a god.

Aristotle, Politics 1.2Translated by William Ellis (1912)Read the full passage (opens gutenberg.org)

When, and whose words

Date
c. 335–322 BCE. His works are hard to date; they are usually placed in his Lyceum years in Athens, 335–322 BCE.
Whose words
His own words, in the Politics. Who was Aristotle?
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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