The vital thing to know if we’re to start breaking vices and building virtue is that we can’t do it by trying to act virtuous.
And here’s where the old Aristotelian concept of acting from virtue versus acting according to virtue can help.1 When we act according to virtue, we are trying. We are hoping to do something we know we ought to do or should do—we’re performing the virtuous act out of duty. That kind of life can be summed up in Mark Twain’s line,
“It is very wearying to be good.”2
However, when we act from virtue we behave in a way that is seamless with our character. It is habitual, or second nature, meaning that we act from a deep rhythm of goodness. Instead of enduring the wearying life, we acquire the restful life—the life that thinks, feels, and acts with peace, power, and pleasure.
Room to Reflect
Where in your week would “acting from virtue” (second nature) look different from “acting according to virtue” (duty)?
Which small habit could help your actions become more seamless with your character?
When have you noticed duty turning into delight — and what contributed to that shift?
Nichomachean Ethics ii. 4 (1105b5—10).
Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. (United Kingdom: Harper, 1901), 446.