Full Idea
Moral virtues are neither by nor contrary to nature; we are constituted to receive them, but their full development is due to habit.
Clarification
'Nature' is the Greek word 'physis'
Gist of Idea
Nature enables us to be virtuous, but habit develops virtue in us
Source
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1103a21)
Book Reference
Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.91
A Reaction
The notion of the habit of virtue is hugely important, precisely because such an idea is missing in Hobbes, Bentham and Kant. The concept of a true 'lady' or 'gentleman'.