Aristotle Quote by Ryan Holiday

““Without virtue and training, Aristotle observed, “it is hard to bear the results of good fortune suitably.””

Ryan Holiday

About This Quote

Source Book: Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle, 4th century BC

Good fortune can be difficult to handle without moral character and disciplined practice.

In simple terms: Virtue and training help manage luck.

Key Takeaway

Cultivate virtue and discipline.

Themes

virtue fortune self‑control

Mood

reflective thoughtful

Type

philosophical advice

When to use this quote

career setbacks
unexpected windfalls
leadership decisions

Key Concepts

ethics human nature stoicism

Questions to Reflect On

How does virtue change your reaction to success?
Can training mitigate the shock of good luck?

A Different Perspective

Even with virtue, external events may overwhelm.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.3 out of 5 (5 ratings)

Aristotle Aristotle Observed Character Fitness Training Aristotle Virtue Virtue Training Wealth

More by Ryan Holiday

“If we can focus on making clear what parts of our day are within our control and what parts are not, we will not…

Ryan Holiday

Image

“The areas of great interest to the Stoics all make an appearance here: virtue, mortality, emotions, self-awareness, fortitude, right action, problem solving, acceptance, mental…

Ryan Holiday

Image

“With a business, we take most failures less personally and understand they’re part of the process.”

Ryan Holiday

Image

“Many creatives want to be just the creator, or only “the idea guy.” They like that because it’s sexy and because that’s what comes…

Ryan Holiday

Image

Pretty much everyone's career starts the same way: with grunt work. Not just the cliched fetching of coffee, but other lowly tasks: taking notes…

Ryan Holiday

Image

The greats - they protect their sleep because it's where the best work comes from. They say no to things. They turn in when…

Ryan Holiday

Image

“Where little danger is apprehended, the more the enemy will be unprepared and consequently there is the fairest prospect of success.”

Ryan Holiday

Image

We often learn the hard way that our world is ruled by external factors. We don't always get what is rightfully ours, even if…

Ryan Holiday

Image

“From Rusticus … I learned to read carefully and not be satisfied with a rough understanding of the whole, and not to agree too…

Ryan Holiday

Image

I wholeheartedly agree that many media 'standards' can feel disingenuous or, in fact, be a cover for less-than-honest behavior.

Ryan Holiday

Image

“Remember: even what we get for free has a cost, if only in what we pay to store it—in our garages and in our…

Ryan Holiday

Image

It's your job to find a release and an outlet for the stress and the feelings. Never forget: the crazy stays at home.

Ryan Holiday

Image

Explore all 505 Ryan Holiday quotes

More Aristotle quotes

“This is Galileo,” said Aristotle. “He advocates understanding the world through observation and experiment. He is an unimaginative thinker, but his results demand our…

Liu Cixin

Image

Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by…

Bertrand Russell

Image

“This is what Aristotle meant when he said that the object of science is the necessary and the universal; man and not this man.”

Fulton J. Sheen

Image

The ancient Greek philosophers were all natural-born dialecticians and Aristotle, the most encyclopaedic intellect among them, had even already analysed the most essential forms…

Friedrich Engels

Image

“I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well. { His teacher was the legendary philosopher Aristotle }”

Alexander the Great

Image

Aristotle discovered all the half-truths which were necessary to the creation of science.

Alfred North Whitehead

Image

The bourgeois thinkers of the eighteenth century thus turned Aristotle's formula on its head: satisfactions which the Greek philosopher had identified with leisure were…

Alain de Botton

Image

“We are what we repeatedly do. —Aristotle”

Joe Navarro

Image

“When the point of education becomes the production of credentials rather than the cultivation of knowledge, it forfeits the motive recognized by Aristotle: "All…

Matthew B. Crawford

Image

The intimate and the infinite are tangled together in this incandescent book, lit by Aristotle’s bright spark of a daughter. Lucid even in nightmare,…

Marina Endicott

Image

“Within certain limits terminology is always arbitrary. But the definition of being-true as unveiling, making manifest, is not an arbitrary, private invention of mine;…

Martin Heidegger

Image

“I have this idea that the reason we have dreams is that we're thinking about things that we don't know we're thinking about-and those…

Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Image

Browse all 260 Aristotle quotes

Aristotle Quote by Ryan Holiday

About This Quote

Related quotes

More by Ryan Holiday

More Aristotle quotes