“It is to be expected, then, that we do not say that either a cow or a horse or any other animal is at all happy, for none of them are able to share in such an activity.

It is because of this too that a child is not happy either: he is not yet apt to do such things, on account of his age. …

As we said, both complete virtue and a complete life are required: many reversals and all manner of fortune arise in the course of life, and it is possible for someone who is particularly thriving to encounter great disasters in old age, just as the myth is told about Priam in the Trojan tales.

Nobody deems happy someone who deals with fortunes of that sort and comes to a wretched end.”

(Nicomachean Ethics, I.9)

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