224 things from this book went into her brain. Here are the first 6.
Aristotle held that good character is the indispensable condition of happiness, which he saw as the goal of all human action.
Aristotle paired wide ideas about human nature with close attention to how people actually behave, and that mix is what keeps his ethics useful.
Aristotle held that the point of studying ethics is practical: knowing what is best for people and how to bring it about.
Aristotle held that rules for living are general guides that admit exceptions, and that real understanding of them comes from experience of good character.
Aristotle argued that happiness is not pleasure, power, honour or wealth, but a life of activity guided by reason that suits human nature.
Aristotle held that character is formed by habit: repeating good acts gradually makes them easy and, over time, a second nature.
Aristotle taught that right action means doing just the amount a situation calls for, with excess and deficiency both going wrong.
Aristotle held that a virtue is a steady disposition to act well in recurring situations, and that rules must be applied with judgement to each case.
Aristotle held that the acts we choose after deliberating are the most telling evidence of what we are, because the whole person enters into them.
Aristotle saw justice first as the fair-minded habit every citizen needs in order to take part in public life, as a judge, official or juror.
Aristotle held that practical wisdom lets a person produce the right rule from within, because they understand the end they are aiming at and can justify the choice.
Aristotle held that practical wisdom and good character depend on each other: neither is fully possible without the other.
Aristotle observed that people can know what is good and still fail to act on it, and he saw the desire behind that failure as not wholly unreasonable.
Aristotle gave friendship two full books, treating it as a necessary part of a good life rather than an extra.
Aristotle held that pleasure naturally comes with activity done well, so the highest pleasures accompany the highest activity.
Aristotle said anyone who wants to make themselves or others better must become a small legislator, studying the principles of law, morality and education.
Aristotle opens the Ethics by observing that every art, inquiry and choice aims at some good, and that the highest good is what all things aim at.
Aristotle reasoned that the highest good is the end we want for its own sake, since otherwise our wanting would go on without limit.
Aristotle likened the search for the right course to an archer aiming at a mark, since a clear target makes it more likely we hit it.
Aristotle held that we should seek only as much precision as a subject allows, because demanding proof where persuasion is the right tool is a mistake.
Aristotle said a young person is not ready for moral philosophy, because it needs experience of real actions and a mind not ruled by passing desires.
Aristotle noted that people agree on the word happiness but disagree about its nature, and that one person may call health or wealth happiness depending on their mood.
Aristotle argued that honour is too superficial to be the good, because it depends on those who give it and can be taken away.
Aristotle observed that wealth is wanted for the sake of something further, so it cannot be the good we are finally seeking.
Aristotle argued that a physician studies the health of this particular patient, not health in the abstract, so practical knowledge belongs to concrete cases.
Aristotle held that we choose honour, pleasure and virtue partly for the sake of happiness, but we never choose happiness for the sake of anything else.
Aristotle held that the good life lacks nothing, yet people are made for social life, so it includes family, friends and fellow citizens.
Aristotle concluded that a person's good lies in activity of the soul guided by reason and done well, just as a harp player's good is playing the harp well.
Aristotle said one fine day does not make a spring, and one good stretch does not make a person happy: happiness is judged across a whole life.
Aristotle held that virtue is something we do, not just something we have, since a person asleep may have good character yet do no good at all.
Aristotle held that a good person takes real pleasure in acting well, so virtuous action is pleasant in itself and not only a duty.
Aristotle held that happiness comes through learning and steady effort, so most people who are not crippled in their capacity for virtue can reach it.
Aristotle argued that a person's steadiness comes from acting in line with virtue rather than from fortune, because good and bad luck keep moving around the same people.
Aristotle said a good person bears misfortune with dignity and does the noblest thing the circumstances allow, as a good general makes the most of the troops he has.
Aristotle observed that we are born with a capacity for virtue but become just, brave or self-controlled by doing just, brave or self-controlled acts, as builders learn by building.
Aristotle insisted that the point of studying ethics is to become good, not merely to know what goodness is.
Aristotle offered a test of real virtue: a brave person faces danger with little or no pain, and a self-controlled person is glad to abstain, not merely able to.
Aristotle held that good education trains people to feel pleasure and pain in the right things, since pleasure often leads us to do wrong.
Aristotle held that knowing the right thing is not enough for virtue: we must choose it for its own sake and act from a settled character.
Aristotle warned that talking about virtue does not make anyone good, any more than a patient who listens closely to the doctor and then ignores the advice gets well.
Aristotle held that the right amount depends on the person: ten is too much food for a beginner and too little for a champion wrestler, so the mean is set relative to us.
Aristotle noted that there are many ways to go wrong but only one way to go right, which is why doing right is hard and going astray is easy.
Aristotle held that some acts, such as theft, are wrong in themselves, so they have no right amount to aim at and cannot be done well at all.
Aristotle paired each virtue with two faults, one of too much and one of too little, such as courage lying between rashness and cowardice.
Aristotle noted that we often judge a person by the extreme they are nearest, so the brave look rash to a coward and cowardly to a rash person.
Aristotle observed that our own natural bias makes one extreme feel further from the mean, and since people lean toward pleasure, self-indulgence seems the worse fault.
Aristotle advised pushing against our own bent, as one straightens warped timber, and keeping well clear of the extreme most opposed to the mean.
Aristotle advised guarding most carefully against pleasure, because we are not impartial judges of what pleases us.
Aristotle judged that a hard choice made under pressure, such as throwing cargo overboard in a storm, is voluntary at the moment, because the person weighs the lesser loss.
Aristotle distinguished wishing from choosing: we wish for ends such as health, but we choose the means, and choice applies only to what lies within our power.
Aristotle held that we deliberate only about what is within our power and still uncertain, and that for great matters a wise person seeks the counsel of others.
Aristotle observed that we deliberate about the means to a goal already set, working backwards step by step and dropping any plan that proves impossible.
Aristotle noted that most people are misled by pleasure, which looks like good without being good, so they choose what pleases and avoid what hurts.
Aristotle observed that once bad habits have set, a person cannot simply wish them away, though they were free to shape those habits at the start.
Aristotle pointed out that we blame illnesses brought on by our own excess or neglect, but pity those we did not cause, and held that character works the same way.
Aristotle held that a brave person fears the right things in the right way: disgrace is worth fearing, while poverty or illness not caused by one's own fault need not be feared.
Aristotle held that courage is shown by facing what is feared for the sake of what is honourable, at the right time and in the right measure.
Aristotle observed that the rash often put on a show of courage they do not have, so they run when real danger arrives.
Aristotle held that the brave person faces danger because it is honourable, while fleeing hardship is only softness, not courage.
Aristotle held that doing right out of fear of punishment ranks below doing it from a sense of honour, since fear is not the motive of a good person.
