Book 7
4
But because Happiness requires the gifts of fortune in addition, some people think that it is the same thing as good fortune; but this is not so, since even good fortune itself when excessive is an impediment to activity, and perhaps indeed no longer deserves to be called good fortune, since good fortune can only be defined in relation to Happiness.
5
(ii.) Moreover, that all animals and all human beings pursue pleasure is some indication that it is in a sense the Supreme Good: No rumor noised abroad by many peoples Comes utterly to naught.Hes. WD 763; the couplet ends, πολλοὶ φημίζουσι· θεός νύ τις ἐστὶ καὶ αὐτή (vox populi vox dei).
6
But they do not all pursue the same pleasure, since the natural state and the best state neither is nor seems to be the same for them all; yet still they all pursue pleasure. Indeed it is possible that in reality they do not pursue the pleasure which they think and would say they do, but all the same pleasure; for nature has implanted in all things something divine.Cf. 10.2.4. But as the pleasures of the body are the ones which we most often meet with, and as all men are capable of these, these have usurped the family title; and so men think these are the only pleasures that exist, because they are the only ones which they know.
