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Nicomachean Ethics Quotes

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Nicomachean Ethics Quotes

“If we state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate excellence human good turns out to be activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete.”

IfsMenHumansWellsKindSoulStatesActionCertainTurnsPrinciplesVirtueActivityPerformancesFunctionExcellenceNobleRationalAppropriateGood ManImplyingNicomachean Ethics
Author:Aristotle
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“Again, it is possible to fail in many ways (for evil belongs to the class of the unlimited and good to that of the limited), 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); for these reasons also, then, excess and defect are characteristic of vice, and the mean of virtue; For men are good in but one way, but bad in many.”

MenWayMeanReasonEvilEasyDifficultClassVirtueFailingMissingSucceedMarkVicesOne WayCharacteristicsExcessUnlimitedDefectsNicomachean Ethics
Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation
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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.”

MenWayKindCharacterCertainDifferencesYouthProduceOughtHabitVaryNicomachean EthicsSmall Differences
Author:Aristotle
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