It is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy.
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, Book I, Chapter V (340 BCE) Translated by D. P. Chase
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When and why it was written
- When
- From the Nicomachean Ethics, lectures given in Athens in the 4th century BCE.
- Why
- Aristotle is defining happiness as an activity across a complete life, not a passing mood.
What it means
Aristotle refuses to judge a life by its best day. Happiness, for him, is a pattern that shows over time.
That makes the ordinary day matter: it is one of the many that make the spring.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Nicomachean Ethics, 340 BCE
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