Aristotle Happiness Quotations

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.

Happiness is something final and complete in itself, as being the aim and end of all practical activities whatever .... Happiness then we define as the active exercise of the mind in conformity with perfect goodness or virtue.

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.

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

The Life of the intellect is the best and pleasantest for man, because the intellect more than anything else is the man. Thus it will be the happiest life as well.

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.

You can never learn anything that you did not already know

Happiness is a state of activity.

Happiness belongs to the self sufficient.

Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.

Happiness is a sort of action.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

The activity of happiness must occupy an entire lifetime; for one swallow does not a summer make.

When...we, as individuals, obey laws that direct us to behave for the welfare of the community as a whole, we are indirectly helping to promote the pursuit of happiness by our fellow human beings.

Happiness is at once the best, the noblest, and the pleasantest of things.

True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.

Happiness may be defined as good fortune joined to virtue, or a independence, or as a life that is both agreeable and secure.

But what is happiness? If we consider what the function of man is, we find that happiness is a virtuous activity of the soul.

A thing chosen always as an end and never as a means we call absolutely final. Now happiness above all else appears to be absolutely final in this sense, since we always choose it for its own sake and never as a means to something else.

It is our actions and the soul's active exercise of its functions that we posit (as being Happiness);

Now if there is any gift of the gods to men, it is reasonable that happiness should be god-given, and most surely god-given of all human things inasmuch as it is the best. But this question would perhaps be more appropriate to another inquiry; happiness seems, however, even if it is not god-sent but comes as a result of virtue and some process of learning and training, to be among the most god-like things; for that which is the prize and end of virtue seems to be the best thing in the world, and something god-like and blessed.

It is the active exercise of our faculties in conformity with virtue that causes happiness, and the opposite activities its opposite.

The happy man . . . will be always or at least most often employed in doing and contemplating the things that are in conformity with virtue. And he will bear changes of fortunes most nobly, and with perfect propriety in every way.

No one praises happiness as one praises justice, but we call it a 'blessing,' deeming it something higher and more divine than things we praise.

Happiness is a thing honored and perfect. This seems to be borne out by the fact that it is a first principle or starting-point, since all other things that all men do are done for its sake; and that which is the first principle and cause of things good we agree to be something honorable and divine.

Happiness is a certain activity of soul in conformity with perfect goodness

Happiness is essentially perfect; so that the happy man requires in addition the goods of the body, external goods and the gifts of fortune, in order that his activity may not be impeded through lack of them.

It is the activity of the intellect that constitutes complete human happiness - provided it be granted a complete span of life, for nothing that belongs to happiness can be incomplete.

The activity of God, which is transcendent in blessedness, is the activity of contemplation; and therefore among human activities that which is most akin to the divine activity of contemplation will be the greatest source of happiness.

It must not be supposed that happiness will demand many or great possessions; for self-sufficiency does not depend on excessive abundance, nor does moral conduct, and it is possible to perform noble deeds even without being ruler of land and sea: one can do virtuous acts with quite moderate resources. This may be clearly observed in experience: private citizens do not seem to be less but more given to doing virtuous actions than princes and potentates. It is sufficient then if moderate resources are forthcoming; for a life of virtuous activity will be essentially a happy life.

A good man may make the best even of poverty and disease, and the other ills of life; but he can only attain happiness under the opposite conditions

If happiness, then, is activity expressing virtue, it is reasonable for it to express the supreme virtue, which will be the virtueof the best thing.

Let us be well persuaded that everyone of us possesses happiness in proportion to his virtue and wisdom, and according as he acts in obedience to their suggestion.