Nicomachean Ethics

​And a person is called self-controlled or lacking self-control according as his intellect rules or does not, which implies that this is each person himself. And people are thought to have done actions themselves, and voluntarily, most of all when these are accompanied by reason. That each person is indeed this part, or is so most of all, is not unclear, and also that the decent person loves this part most. Therefore he would be indeed most of all a self-lover, after a different form from the one held in reproach, and differing as much as living in accordance with reason differs from living in accordance with passion, and desiring the noble differs from desiring what seems to be advantageous. Those, then, who are exceptionally zealous about noble actions, everyone approves and praises; and if all were to strive towards the noble and strain to perform the noblest actions, there would be both for the public all things that are necessary, and for each person individually the greatest of goods, since virtue is indeed such a thing. So, while the good person ought to be a self-lover (for he will himself benefit by doing noble actions and will help others), the wicked person ought not; for he will harm both himself and his neighbors, by following base passions. For the wicked person, then, what he ought to do and what he does clash; but the decent person does indeed what he ought to do, since every intellect chooses what is best for itself, and the decent person obeys his intellect. It is also true of the excellent person that he does many things for the sake of his friends and his country, even if it should be necessary to die for them. For he will abandon both money and honors, and in general the goods fought over, securing for himself the noble; for he would prefer to feel intense pleasure for a short time rather than mild pleasure for a long time, and to live nobly for one year rather than for many years by chance, and to perform one noble and great action rather than many small ones. And this is presumably what happens to those who die for others; they choose indeed a great noble thing for themselves. And they would also abandon money on the condition that their friends will receive more; for the friend gets money, while he gets the noble, and so he assigns to himself the greater good. And concerning honors and offices, it is the same way; for he will abandon all these to his friend, for this is indeed noble for him and praiseworthy. He is reasonably, then, thought to be excellent, choosing the noble in exchange for all things. And it is also possible for him to abandon actions to his friend, and it may be nobler to become the cause of his friend’s doing them than to do them himself. In all praiseworthy things, then, the excellent person clearly assigns to himself the greater share of the noble. In this way, then, one ought to be a self-lover, as has been said; but in the way the many are, one ought not.