“We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
virtueethicschange
Paraphrase or translation
Philosopher
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Aristotle
384–322 BCE · Aristotelianism · Ancient
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Aristotle was born in 384 BCE at Stagira, studied for twenty years at Plato's Academy, tutored Alexander, and later founded the Lyceum in Athens. He died in 322. The works we have are mostly treatises assembled from lectures, not the dialogues he also wrote, which are lost. The Nicomachean Ethics asks what the human good is and answers with activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, over a whole life.
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Virtue of character is a habit, a mean relative to us, determined by practical wisdom. The Politics says a human being is by nature a political animal, an animal of the polis. The Metaphysics opens with the claim that everyone by nature desires to know, and it contains his report of the earlier philosophers, including Thales.
He also wrote on animals, rhetoric, poetry, and logic. Medieval philosophy in Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin is in large part a set of arguments with him. He is also one of the most misquoted writers in English. Will Durant's summary of the Ethics is regularly printed as if it were Aristotle. A reader who wants him should want the paragraph, not the mug.
Start here
Nicomachean Ethics I.1–7 and II.1–6.
You get the aim of ethics and the definition of virtue before the famous sentences detach themselves from the argument.
Quotations
“Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
ethicsmeaninghappiness
Paraphrase or translation
“It is the mark of an educated person to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
knowledgemind
Paraphrase or translation
“A human being is by nature a political animal.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
societyethics
Paraphrase or translation
“The human good turns out to be activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
happinessvirtuemeaning
Paraphrase or translation
“The totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something besides the parts.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
knowledgesociety
Paraphrase or translation
“All human beings by nature desire to know.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
knowledgemind
Paraphrase or translation
“Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
virtueethics
Paraphrase or translation
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
virtueethicsself
Misattributed
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism
knowledgemind
Misattributed
Key ideas
Eudaimonia
The human good is a life of activity in accordance with virtue, not a mood and not a pile of goods.
Virtue as habit
We become just by doing just acts, and moral virtue is a settled state of choosing a mean relative to us.
Practical precision
An educated person asks only for the exactness the subject allows, so ethics will not look like geometry.
The political animal
Human beings are made for a community that speaks about justice, not only for herding together.
Major works
Nicomachean Ethics (c. 340 BCE)
His main treatise on happiness, virtue, friendship, and pleasure, probably named for his son Nicomachus.
Politics (c. 330 BCE)
A study of the polis that begins from the claim that a human being is by nature a political animal.
Metaphysics (c. 330 BCE)
A collection on being, cause, and substance, opening with the desire to know and a history of earlier principles.
Influences
Influenced
Common misreadings
- 'We are what we repeatedly do' is Will Durant's sentence, not Aristotle's.
- The mean is not a plea to be moderate about everything, and some acts, on his view, admit of no right amount.
Topic hubs
Famous lines Aristotle never said
Misattributed means the library does not treat the sentence as theirs. Questionable means there is a real doubt, which is not the same as a proof they never wrote it. Both are listed here.
- Misattributed
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Will Durant wrote this in The Story of Philosophy as his own summary of Aristotle's ethics. Aristotle's actual claim, in Nicomachean Ethics II.1, is that we become just by doing just acts. The famous wording is Durant's, and it is an intelligent paraphrase, not a quotation.
Open the card - Misattributed
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
This sentence is not in the Nicomachean Ethics or anywhere else in the Aristotelian corpus. A real remark of his, at Ethics I.3, is that an educated person looks for only as much precision as the subject allows. The two thoughts are not the same.
Open the card
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
Nicomachean Ethics I.1–7 and II.1–6. You get the aim of ethics and the definition of virtue before the famous sentences detach themselves from the argument.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Aristotle that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” (Nicomachean Ethics II.1, 1103a–b, Paraphrase or translation).
What is the most misquoted line?
The library marks this as Misattributed: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Will Durant wrote this in The Story of Philosophy as his own summary of Aristotle's ethics. Aristotle's actual claim, in Nicomachean Ethics II.1, is that we become just by doing just acts. The famous wording is Durant's, and it is an intelligent paraphrase, not a quotation.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
Eudaimonia: The human good is a life of activity in accordance with virtue, not a mood and not a pile of goods.