Quotes on Nicomachean Ethics

He is his own best friend and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy and is afraid of solitude.

Hence intellect[ual perception] is both a beginning and an end, for the demonstrations arise from these, and concern them. As a result, one ought to pay attention to the undemonstrated assertions and opinions of experienced and older people, or of the prudent, no less than to demonstrations, for, because the have an experienced eye, they see correctly.

Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be.

These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions ... The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life.

The truly good and wise man will bear all kinds of fortune in a seemly way, and will always act in the noblest manner that the circumstances allow.

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because life is sweet and they are growing.

Bad people...are in conflict with themselves; they desire one thing and will another, like the incontinent who choose harmful pleasures instead of what they themselves believe to be good.

The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.

In educating the young we steer them by the rudders of pleasure and pain

Happiness, then, is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.

To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.

The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.

The self-indulgent man craves for all pleasant things... and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else.

Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.

The pleasures arising from thinking and learning will make us think and learn all the more. 1153a 23

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.