Nicomachean Ethics Quotes

• 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.

  Aristotle

  Life, Gratitude, Courage

  "Nicomachean Ethics". Book by Aristotle, I, 1101a, www.perseus.tufts.edu.

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• 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.

  Aristotle

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

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• We make war that we may live in peace.

  Aristotle

  Strength, Veterans Day, Peace

  Nicomachean Ethics bk. 10, 1177b See Vegetius 1

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• 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.

  Aristotle

  Believe, People, Desire

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• The virtues [moral excellence] therefore are engendered in us neither by nature nor yet in violation of nature; nature gives us the capacity to receive them, and this capacity is brought to maturity by habit.

  Aristotle

  Maturity, Giving, Excellence

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• 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.

  Aristotle

  Art, Choices, Inquiry

  Nicomachean Ethics, bk.1, ch.1,1093 (translated by Sir David Ross).

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

  Aristotle

  Happiness, Self, Perfect

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• The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement.

  Aristotle

  Life, Inspire, Excellence

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1860, Princeton University Press

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• 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.

  Aristotle

  Men, Soul, Excellence

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• It is possible to fail in many ways . . . while to succeed is possible only in one way (for which reason also one is easy and the other difficult - to miss the mark easy, to hit it difficult).

  Aristotle

  Failure, Missing, Way

  Nichomachean Ethics (c. 330 b.c.).

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• 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.

  Aristotle

  Inspirational, Courage, Yoga

  Aristotle (1953). “Ethics: The Nicomachean Ethics”

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• Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue

  Aristotle

  Soul, Virtue, Activity

  Aristotle (1869). “The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle”, p.30

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• We assume therefore that moral virtue is the quality of acting in the best way in relation to pleasures and pains, and that vice is the opposite.

  Aristotle

  Pain, Opposites, Quality

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.36, Wordsworth Editions

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

  Aristotle

  Inspirational, Friendship, Philosophical

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.603, Simon and Schuster

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• 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.

  Aristotle

  Sake, Wealth, Making Money

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1732, Princeton University Press

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• He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

  Aristotle

  Philosophical, Liberty, Society

  Politics bk. 1, 1253a

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

  Aristotle

  Nature, Science, Action

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1738, Princeton University Press

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• If there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake, clearly this must be the good. Will not knowledge of it, then, have a great influence on life? Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what we should? If so, we must try, in outline at least, to determine what it is.

  Aristotle

  Life, Philosophy, Educational

  "Nicomachean Ethics". Book by Aristotle. Book I, 1094a.18,

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• Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.

  Aristotle

  Self, Obedience

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

  Aristotle

  Thinking, Pleasure

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• Happiness does not lie in amusement; it would be strange if one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one's life in order to amuse oneself.

  Aristotle

  Happiness, Lying, Order

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• In a word, acts of any kind produce habits or characters of the same kind. Hence we ought to make sure that our acts are of a certain kind; for the resulting character varies as they vary. It makes no small difference, therefore, whether a man be trained in his youth up in this way or that, but a great difference, or rather all the difference.

  Aristotle

  Character, Men, Differences

  "Nicomachean Ethics". Book by Aristotle. Book II, 1103b,

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

  Aristotle

  Happiness, Laughter, Joy

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1860, Princeton University Press

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• It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits

  Aristotle

  Men, Class, Looks

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.487, Simon and Schuster

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• Men are good in but one way, but bad in many.

  Aristotle

  Men, Way, One Way

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.1748, Princeton University Press

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