Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
AristotleRead
The purpose of the present study is not as it is in other inquiries, the attainment of knowledge, we are not conducting this inquiry in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, else there would be no advantage in studying it. For that reason, it becomes necessary to examine the problem of our actions and to ask how they are to be performed. For as we have said, the actions determine what kind of characteristics are developed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The aim of studying virtue is to become virtuous, not just to acquire knowledge about it.
This quote by Aristotle emphasizes that the ultimate goal of studying moral philosophy and virtue is not merely intellectual understanding but rather the practical application that leads to moral development. He argues that our actions shape our character, and therefore, understanding how to perform good actions is essential to becoming a better person.
Themes
VirtueActionCharacterMoralKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on ethics, one might use this quote to provoke discussion about the difference between knowing what is right and actually doing it.
More from Aristotle
All quotes →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 whole is more than the sum of its parts.
AristotleRead
Similar quotes
If you want that good feeling that comes from doing things for other folks then you have to pay for it in abuse and misunderstanding.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
A reactionary is fixed on the past and wanting to return to it; a conservative wishes to adapt what is best in the past to the changing circumstances of the present.
Roger ScrutonRead
Try not to associate bodily defect with mental, my good friend, except for a solid reason
Charles DickensRead
Thoughts and feelings are suspended in a vacuum unless they instigate and feed the selected actions, and it is the characters actions which reveal the character in the play.
Uta HagenRead
Veganism has given me a higher level of awareness and spirituality, primary because the energy associated with eating has shifted to other areas. If you’re violent to yourself by putting [harmful] things into your body that violate its spirit, it will be difficult not to perpetuate that [violence] onto someone else.
Dexter Scott KingRead
As to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is on no ground credible. Even if some unknown landmass is there, and not just ocean, there was only one pair of original ancestors, and it is inconceivable that such distant regions should have been peopled by Adam's descendants.
Saint AugustineRead