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But as more arts were invented, and some were directed to the necessities of life, others to recreation, the inventors of the latter were naturally always regarded as wiser than the inventors of the former, because their branches of knowledge did not aim at utility. ... This is why the mathematical arts were founded in Egypt; for there the priestly caste was allowed to be at leisure.

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Notes from Wikiquote

See also Charles Sanders Peirce The Scientific Attitude and Fallibilism

More quotes by Aristotle

The wise man must not be ordered but must order, and he must not obey another, but the less wise must obey him.

That which is desirable on its own account and for the sake of knowing it is more of the nature of wisdom than that which is desirable on account of its results.

But he who neither thinks for himself, nor lays to heart another's wisdom, this is a useless man.’

The best friend is he that, when he wishes a person's good, wishes it for that person's own sake.

When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Aristotle (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.