The Story of Philosophy · 1926
Who Wrote “We Are What We Repeatedly Do”?
Will Durant wrote the familiar two-sentence wording in The Story of Philosophy (1926) while summarizing Aristotle’s ethics. Aristotle argues that moral character is formed through habituation, but his surviving works do not contain Durant’s exact sentence.
Popular wording
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Documented wording
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Context
How Durant summarizes Aristotle
The sentence appears in Durant’s chapter on Aristotle, in the section about ethics and happiness. Durant condenses Aristotle’s extended account of training, repeated action and moral character into a memorable modern aphorism for general readers.
Attribution note
Credit the exact English wording to Will Durant. When the connection to Aristotle matters, “Will Durant, summarizing Aristotle” preserves both the documented authorship and the philosophical source of the idea.
- Documented author
- Will Durant
- Document
- The Story of Philosophy
- Chapter
- Chapter II: Aristotle and Greek Science
- Publication
- Simon and Schuster, New York
- Date
- 1926
Primary book text
Read Durant’s wording in the complete 1926 edition.
The external link opens The Story of Philosophy, including the title page, publication details and the Aristotle chapter in which Durant’s sentence appears.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II ↗ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Aristotle’s Ethics ↗