Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular. (1451b6)
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Poetry is better than history because it shows universal truths, while history only records specific events.
- In plain terms
- Poetry teaches general truths about life, history just tells about specific things that happened.
- What can you take from it?
- Seek universal insights over specific facts.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Which teaches more about human nature?
- Is truth found in stories or facts?
Another view
History also reveals universal patterns through study.
More from Aristotle
A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end. (1450b26)
Permalink to quote #67 Poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him. (1455a33)
Permalink to quote #69 A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action ... with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions. (1449b24)
Permalink to quote #66
Related quotes
Poetry, even when apparently most fantastic, is always a revolt against artifice, a revolt, in a sense, against actuality. It speaks of what seems fantastic an…
James JoyceJames Joyce quote #1 Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.
Gustave FlaubertGustave Flaubert quote #7 The use of this feigned history hath been to give some shadow of satisfaction to the mind of man in those points wherein the nature of things doth deny it, the…
Francis BaconFrancis Bacon quote #19