Q0226

“For one swallow does not make a spring, nor does one day.” — Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics I.7)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Nicomachean Ethics I.7. Theme: happiness.

English

For one swallow does not make a spring, nor does one day.
Thinker Aristotle
School Peripatetic School
Source Nicomachean Ethics I.7
Theme Happiness
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Nicomachean Ethics I.7 and files it under Peripatetic School. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Aristotle

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher born in Stagira in Macedonia, the son of a court physician. At about seventeen he entered Plato’s Academy in Athens and remained associated with it until Plato’s death in 347.

How to read this passage

Greek eudaimonia, Buddhist analyses of craving, utilitarian happiness, and modern well-being research all contest the meaning of a good life. This passage enters that discussion through happiness, time, life.

Concepts in this quote

Happiness
Happiness—or flourishing—is a central aim in ethics: what makes a life go well, and whether pleasure alone is enough.
Time
Philosophy of time asks what tense and duration are—and how memory, death, and history shape a human life.
Life
Philosophy quotes about life ask what makes a life good, meaningful, or worth examining—questions that drive ethics, religion, and everyday decision.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Aristotle. (n.d.). For one swallow does not make a spring, nor does one day. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0226

MLA: Aristotle. “For one swallow does not make a spring,….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0226.

Chicago: Aristotle. “For one swallow does not make a spring,….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0226.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “For one swallow does not make a spring,…”?

The passage is attributed to Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I.7. The archive attributes this English wording to Nicomachean Ethics I.7 and files it under Peripatetic School. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Aristotle mean by happiness?

Greek eudaimonia, Buddhist analyses of craving, utilitarian happiness, and modern well-being research all contest the meaning of a good life. This passage enters that discussion through happiness, time, life.

Same thinker

More from Aristotle

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. The human good is activity of soul in accordance with virtue.
  3. Virtues arise in us neither by nature nor contrary to nature; we are fitted by nature to receive them, and are brought to completion by habit.
  4. Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us.
  5. Man is by nature a political animal.

All quotations by Aristotle

Same theme

More on happiness

  1. The human good is activity of soul in accordance with virtue.
  2. Of all that wisdom provides for the happiness of a whole life, by far the greatest is the possession of friendship.
  3. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
  4. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
  5. The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions…be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

Browse the happiness theme