The first quote is not even a quote from Aristotle but from Will Durant’s book, The Story of Philosophy (1926)
"Don't believe everything you read on the internet" -- Sun Tzu
Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
21–30 of 104 posts
Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
#22Much of this is either simply not Aristotle, or a paraphrase from one of his works incorrectly attributed to another. My slop meter is pinging. Edit: Between the misattributions, fabricated quotes, listicle format, thin explanatory paragraphs, and use of “delve” (posted Nov 2024 - during ChatGPT’s Delve Era), this is a pretty embarrassing thing for a Liberal Arts college to post.
It’s also embarrassing to see a philosopher summarized in quotes or sayings when their real thesis is probably the opposite of what the snippet suggests,
Philosophy is not about clever observations! They are developing systems and arguments you have to actually read to understand.
Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
#23The first quote is not even a quote from Aristotle but from Will Durant’s book, The Story of Philosophy (1926)
Pretty low effort article I like the quotes but yeah.
My favorite part is the useless comment bellow each quote like: "The commenter above has stated that the quote is not from aristotle, this is important for the article"
Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
#24Actually reading Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics is worth it. Not because he's right about everything (he has some pretty messed up and weird views), but because it's challenging and good to think on, and chances are you'll take something away for yourself that you wouldn't have gotten from some webpage that took one-liners out of context, some of which aren't even by Aristotle.
Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
#25“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
I see this quote a lot and can never find it in original sources for Aristotle. It seems to be a misattribution from the foreword of Religion and the Pursuit of Truth by Lowell L Bennion
https://archive.org/details/religionpursuito0000lowe/page/n5...
Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
#26> 2. "Happiness depends upon ourselves." he's quiet possibly referring to happiness as a relationship (with family, friends, colleagues, citizens etc) rather than just by oneself / isolation / individual. he famously said "man by nature is a political animal" (or social if you prefer)
Social and political are very different, unless you are overly concerned with accumulating power within your social relationships.
of course they are. his original quote says 'political' but often translations or quotes may say 'social' (informally).
Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
#27> 2. "Happiness depends upon ourselves." he's quiet possibly referring to happiness as a relationship (with family, friends, colleagues, citizens etc) rather than just by oneself / isolation / individual. he famously said "man by nature is a political animal" (or social if you prefer)
Social and political are very different, unless you are overly concerned with accumulating power within your social relationships.
In the original its meaning is being part of a greater unit.
Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
#28[dead]
Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
#29> 2. "Happiness depends upon ourselves." he's quiet possibly referring to happiness as a relationship (with family, friends, colleagues, citizens etc) rather than just by oneself / isolation / individual. he famously said "man by nature is a political animal" (or social if you prefer)
Social and political are very different, unless you are overly concerned with accumulating power within your social relationships.
It's more social, the translation of political is coming from polis; man is by nature meant to be part of a city or community.
Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness
#30FWIW, I got a lot more about virtue ethics from reading Plato's works, the Stoics, and Cicero. Aristotle is somewhat dry and tedious to read. Go for him if you're into formal logic and related technical systems. But if you're truly interested in virtue ethics and have some reading discipline, try Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.
On Marcus Aurelius: he's often recommended mindlessly (especially in tech circles). I actually to suggest to read him last. He does have valuable things to say, but he's the most depressive of the Big Three Stoics. You can better appreciate Aurelius if you've already digested some Socratic dialogues and Epictetus. One of the top-most Stoicism scholars (A. A. Long) describes Marcus Aurelius this way: "a melancholy emperor, who was hardly a card-carrying Stoic".
FWIW, here's[1] my recommended reading order and top English translations from five years ago. Cut out the cheap rehashes by people such as Ryan Holiday and stick to the originals. A bonus note[2] on the Roman gem, Cicero, from six years ago.