"People do not naturally become morally excellent..." - Quote by Aristotle
People do not naturally become morally excellent or practically wise. They become so, if at all, only as the result of lifelong personal and community effort.
More by Aristotle
“Everybody loves a thing more if it has cost him trouble: for instance those who have made money love money more than those who have inherited it.”
“To be ignorant of motion is to be ignorant of nature”
“All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.”
More on Virtue
“Self-culture has been loudly and boastfully proclaimed as sufficient for all our ideals of perfection. But if we listen to the best men and women everywhere ... they will say that science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.”
“To know your faults and be able to change is the greatest virtue.”
“The one who is filled by virtue is like a newborn baby.”
More on Effort
“People tend to relax when they're off camera. That's when they should be working the hardest.”
“This fair homestead has fallen to us, and how little have we done to improve it, how little have we cleared and hedged and ditched! We are too inclined to go hence to a "better land," without lifting a finger, as our farmers are moving to the Ohio soil; but would it not be more heroic and faithful to till and redeem this New England soil of the world?”
“Whatever good things we build end up building us.”