Quote
By Aristotle
And we must add, in a complete life; for as 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.
- Source
- The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (translated by D. P. Chase), 1915 · Nicomachean Ethics I.7, 1098a, p. 12
- Read at
- J. M. Dent & Sons, London (Everyman's Library; Chase's translation first published 1847; this is the 1915 reprint of the Dent edition)
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About this quote
From the Nicomachean Ethics, Book I, in D. P. Chase's English translation (Everyman's Library, Dent edition). Aristotle is explaining why happiness cannot be measured by one good moment: it needs a whole life. This is the source of the saying "one swallow does not make a summer", which is a later paraphrase. The wording here is Chase's.