QuoteProject
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Aristotle
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that a complete entity has greater significance and value than merely adding up its individual components.

Aristotle's quote, 'The whole is more than the sum of its parts,' implies that when elements come together to form a complex system, the resulting unity possesses qualities and functionalities that exceed what each individual part can achieve on its own. This principle can be applied across various disciplines, showcasing how collaboration and integration can lead to enhanced outcomes, whether in nature, human relationships, or societal constructs.

Themes

UnityCollaborationWholenessValueIntegrity

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a team meeting to emphasize the importance of collaboration.

More from Aristotle

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
AristotleRead
Those who cannot bravely face danger are the slaves of their attackers.
AristotleRead
For often, when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.
AristotleRead
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
AristotleRead
But if nothing but soul, or in soul mind, is qualified to count, it is impossible for there to be time unless there is soul, but only that of which time is an attribute, i.e. if change can exist without soul.
AristotleRead
The sun, moving as it does, sets up processes of change and becoming and decay, and by its agency the finest and sweetest water is every day carried up and is dissolved into vapour and rises to the upper region, where it is condensed again by the cold and so returns to the earth. This, as we have said before, is the regular course of nature.
AristotleRead

Similar quotes

When we are young we do not look into mirrors. It is when we are old, concerned with our name, our legend, what our lives will mean to the future. We become vain with the names we own, our claims to have been the first eyes, the strongest army, the cleverest merchant. It is when he is old that Narcissus wants a graven image of himself.
Michael OndaatjeRead
Seeking God? We have totally revised corporate worship services to be sensitive to "seekers." If worship were to be tailored for seekers, it would be directed exclusively to believers, for no one except believers ever seeks God (Rom. 3:9-12).
R. C. SproulRead
Do we realize that industry, which has been our good servant, might make a poor master?
Aldo LeopoldRead
People lose fifty million skin cells every day. The cells get scraped off and turn into invisible dust, and disappear into the air. Maybe we are nothing but skin cells as far as the world is concerned.
Haruki MurakamiRead
What we need to realize is that there can be, shall we say, a movement, a stirring among people, which can be organically designed instead of politically designed.
Alan WattsRead
As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.
Henry David ThoreauRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.