"man’s intrinsic good (his own act done well) is called  subjective happiness, while the object of that act, his extrinsic good, is called objective happiness. We can now see that most properly speaking the final end of man is objective happiness, rather than the subjective attainment of that end or the delight in attaining it."

"The intrinsic final end of human life is thus to do the act with reason in accordance with those qualities that enable this act to be done well, namely, the intellectual and moral virtues."

"The purpose of the knife is not just to cut, but to cut well. To do its own act well, a thing needs a certain quality or qualities, traditionally called ‘virtues.’ The virtue of a knife is sharpness because sharpness is the quality that enables a knife to cut well. So we can say that the intrinsic good of anything that has an act of its own is to do its own act with its own virtue."

"A little boy does not know very distinctly what his final end is, and so he can be easily deceived about what contributes to it. His parents therefore command him to do certain things that help him begin to attain his good."

"So his desire for them is caused by his desire for a complete perfection—it is only because he desires complete perfection that he desires them at all."

"Natural things do not merely wish to continue existing, they wish to complete and perfect their natures."

"The good itself is the primary thing—it is ultimately that which makes the activity of attaining it desirable. It is because the truth is good that the philosopher wants to know it. It is because a person is good that another person wants to befriend him."

"For example, we can distinguish between learning a truth, the truth itself, and delighting in the truth. Or we can distinguish between taking steps to become friends with someone, the friend himself, and delighting in the friend. Delight in an honorable good can itself be an honorable good, but the good in which one delights is better than the delight. Delight in attaining a truth is an honorable good, but it is natural to love the truth itself more than one’s delight in it."

"A man who sacrifices friendship or justice for pleasure is rightly called a ‘pig,’ because pleasure is a good of the senses, which we have in common with animals, whereas honorable goods are goods of rational nature. An honorable good is not wanted for the sake of getting something else, not even pleasure, it is wanted for its own sake... useful goods are primarily wanted for their usefulness in getting other goods, pleasant goods for pleasure, and honorable goods simply because they are good and desirable in themselves."