Aristotle Good Man Quotations

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.

Education and morals make the good man, the good statesman, the good ruler.

Education and morals will be found almost the whole that goes to make a good man.

Wicked men obey out of fear. good men, out of love

The virtue of the good man is necessarily the same as the virtue of the citizen of the perfect state.

Nor need it cause surprise that things disagreeable to the good man should seem pleasant to some men; for mankind is liable to many corruptions and diseases, and the things in question are not really pleasant, but only pleasant to these particular persons, who are in a condition to think them so.

In the perfect state the good man is absolutely the same as the good citizen; whereas in other states the good citizen is only good relatively to his own form of government.

If the state cannot be entirely composed of good men, and yet each citizen is expected to do his own business well, and must therefore have virtue, still inasmuch as all the citizens cannot be alike, the virtue of the citizen and of the good man cannot coincide. All must have the virtue of the good citizen - thus, and thus only, can the state be perfect; but they will not have the virtue of a good man, unless we assume that in the good state all the citizens must be good.

The good man is he for whom, because he is virtuous, the things that are absolutely good are good; it is also plain that his use of these goods must be virtuous and in the absolute sense good.

Excellence or virtue in a man will be the disposition which renders him a good man and also which will cause him to perform his function well.

Indeed, we may go further and assert that anyone who does not delight in fine actions is not even a good man.

The good citizen need not of necessity possess the virtue which makes a good man.