Nicomachean Ethics

"Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, 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."

"Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right?"

"while moral virtue comes about as a result of habit, whence also its name (ethike) is one that is formed by a slight variation from the word ethos (habit)."

"we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts."

"to distinguish the voluntary and the involuntary is presumably necessary for those who are studying the nature of virtue, and useful also for legislators with a view to the assigning both of honours and of punishments."

"Such actions, then, are mixed, but are more like voluntary actions; for they are worthy of choice at the time when they are done, and the end of an action is relative to the occasion."

"for the liberal man is praised not in respect of military matters, nor of those in respect of which the temrate man is praised, nor of judicial decisions, but with regard to the giving and taking of wealth, and especially in respect of giving."

"For the magnificent man is liberal, but the liberal man is not necessarily magnificent."

"all men mean by justice that kind of state of character which makes people disposed to do what is just and makes them act justly and wish for what is just;"

"Now 'reciprocity' fits neither distributive nor rectificatory justice"

"scientific knowledge, practical wisdom, philosophic wisdom, intuitive reason; we do not include judgement and opinion because in these we may be mistaken."

"geometricians and mathematicians and wise in matters like these, it is thought that a young man of practical wisdom cannot be found."