Now by self-sufficient we do not mean that which is sufficient for a man by himself, for one who lives a solitary life, but also for parents, children, wife, and in general for his friends and fellow citizens, since man is born for citizenship. From the point of view of self-sufficiency the same result seems to follow for the final good is thought to be self-sufficient.
Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything other than itself. Now such a thing happiness, above all else, is held to be for this we choose always for self and never for the sake of something else, but honour, pleasure, reason, and every virtue we choose indeed for themselves (for if nothing resulted from them we should still choose each of them), but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, judging that by means of them we shall be happy. Now we call that which is in itself worthy of pursuit more final than that which is worthy of pursuit for the sake of something else, and that which is never desirable for the sake of something else more final than the things that are desirable both in themselves and for the sake of that other thing, and therefore we call final without qualification that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else.
Therefore, if there is only one final end, this will be what we are seeking, and if there are more than one, the most final of these will be what we are seeking. wealth, flutes, and in general instruments) for the sake of something else, clearly not all ends are final ends but the chief good is evidently something final. Since there are evidently more than one end, and we choose some of these (e.g. So the argument has by a different course reached the same point but we must try to state this even more clearly. Therefore, if there is an end for all that we do, this will be the good achievable by action, and if there are more than one, these will be the goods achievable by action. In medicine this is health, in strategy victory, in architecture a house, in any other sphere something else, and in every action and pursuit the end for it is for the sake of this that all men do whatever else they do. What then is the good of each? Surely that for whose sake everything else is done. It seems different in different actions and arts it is different in medicine, in strategy, and in the other arts likewise. Let us again return to the good we are seeking, and ask what it can be.
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