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Full Idea
The good man, qua good, takes pleasure in morally virtuous actions and dislikes vicious ones, just as a musician enjoys beautiful melodies and is pained by bad ones.
Gist of Idea
Good people enjoy virtuous action, just as musicians enjoy beautiful melodies
Source
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1170a09)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.305
A Reaction
This is the best illustration of the Greek love of 'fine' [kalon] actions. 'That was a beautiful thing you just did'.
| 5837 | Things are both good and fine by the same standard [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 5845 | Niceratus learnt the whole of Homer by heart, as a guide to goodness [Xenophon] |
| 139 | A good person is bound to act well, and this brings happiness [Plato] |
| 5142 | Oxen, horses and children cannot be happy, because they cannot perform fine deeds [Aristotle] |
| 2689 | Good people enjoy virtuous action, just as musicians enjoy beautiful melodies [Aristotle] |
| 101 | Slaves can't be happy, because they lack freedom [Aristotle] |
| 3562 | Fine things are worthless if they give no pleasure [Epicurus] |
| 7499 | Stoicism was an elitist option to lead a beautiful life [Stoic school, by Foucault] |
| 14815 | We get enormous pleasure from tales of noble actions [Nietzsche] |
| 7501 | Why couldn't a person's life become a work of art? [Foucault] |