Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle
But such a life would be too
high for man; for it is not in so far as he is man that he
will live so, but in so far as something divine is present
in him; and by so much as this is superior to our composite nature
is its activity superior to that which is the exercise of the other kind of virtue. If reason is divine, then, in comparison with man,
the life according to it is divine in comparison with
human life. But we must not follow those who advise us,
being men, to think of human things, and, being mortal, of
mortal things, but must, so far as we can, make ourselves immortal,
and strain every nerve to live in accordance with the best thing in us; for even if it be small in bulk, much more does it in power
and worth surpass everything. This would seem, too, to be
each man himself,since it is the authoritative and better part
of him. It would be strange, then, if he were to choose
not the life of his self but that of something else. And
what we said before' will apply now; that which is proper to each
thing is by nature best and most pleasant for each thing; for man, therefore, the life according to reason is best and pleasantest,
since reason more than anything else is man. This life
therefore is also the happiest.
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