Aristotle quotes
384 – 322 BC · Ancient Greece, 4th century BC · Philosopher, scientist and polymath
About Aristotle
Born in Stagira (384–322 BC), Aristotle produced a vast corpus on logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics and biology. In moral theory he pioneered virtue ethics: moral character is shaped through habituation and the repeated practice of right actions.
Works: Nicomachean Ethics, Metaphysics, Politics, Organon, History of Animals
Quotes
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Source: Nicomachean Ethics, Book II (4th c. BC) · Check the source
Disputed attribution What we know
- What is documented
- Aristotle argues in Nicomachean Ethics II that moral virtue is acquired by habituation; the familiar sentence is a later paraphrase that summarizes that doctrine.
- What remains uncertain
- The exact modern wording is not found in Aristotle’s works; scholarship traces the popular phrasing to Will Durant’s 1926 summary.
The key insight: excellence is built by repeated practice, not single acts. In Aristotle’s Ethics the point is moral character forms through habituation. Today’s punchy sentence compresses that ancient argument into a modern motto for action.