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Who really said it

Happiness depends upon ourselves

Not Aristotle — a 1955 translator's gloss J. A. K. Thomson 1879–1959 · British classicist and translator
Disputed In copyright

The words are J. A. K. Thomson’s, from his 1955 Penguin translation of the Nicomachean Ethics. Rendering a connective sentence at I.9, he wrote “The conclusion that happiness depends upon ourselves is in harmony with what I said in the first of these lectures” — supplying the italicised clause to tell the reader what ‘the conclusion’ was. The Greek sentence it translates contains no word for happiness and no word for ourselves.

Last verified 20 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Happiness depends upon ourselves” …and this will be found to agree with what we said at the outset. —Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I.9 (trans. W. D. Ross). The phrase "happiness depends upon ourselves" is J. A. K. Thomson's 1955 addition, not Aristotle's.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Aristotle. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by J. A. K. Thomson translation (Penguin)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Aristotle — Greek philosopher. Theme: "Happiness depends upon ourselves". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Happiness depends upon ourselves". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

What Aristotle actually wrote

Passage
Nicomachean Ethics I.9, Bekker 1099b
The Greek
ὅμολογούμενα δὲ ταῦτ᾽ ἀν εἴη καὶ τοῖς ἐν ἀρχῇ
The added clause
J. A. K. Thomson, The Ethics of Aristotle (Penguin, 1955)
Public-domain English
W. D. Ross (Oxford, 1908/1925)

and this will be found to agree with what we said at the outset. Nicomachean Ethics I.9

Ross’s public-domain rendering of the sentence in question. Compare it with the famous four words — they are not a translation of it, they are an explanation inserted alongside it.

Aristotle — Wikiquote (disputed attributions)

How we traced it

  • The Greek at Nicomachean Ethics I.9 is a short connective sentence: ‘and these things would be in agreement with what was said at the beginning.’ W. D. Ross’s public-domain English renders it ‘and this will be found to agree with what we said at the outset’ — no happiness, no ourselves Ross translation ↗.
  • Thomson’s 1955 Penguin version expands it for clarity: ‘The conclusion that happiness depends upon ourselves is in harmony with what I said in the first of these lectures.’ The famous four words are the clause he added to identify the antecedent — a translator’s service to the reader, not a sentence of Aristotle’s Wikiquote, disputed ↗.
  • Stripped of Thomson’s surrounding sentence and printed as a standalone aphorism ‘— Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics,’ it acquires a citation it cannot support: there is no Greek line to point to Greek text, 1099b ↗.
In copyright

Split, and the split runs the wrong way for most people’s assumptions. Aristotle’s Greek is public domain — quote or translate it freely. But the four English words in circulation are Thomson’s 1955 translation, still in copyright (he died in 1959, so UK/EU protection runs to the end of 2029, and the US term for a 1955 publication runs considerably longer). Quote them as the object of analysis rather than as decoration. For free English on this passage use W. D. Ross’s Oxford translation, which is public domain in the United States — noting that Ross died in 1971, so life-plus-70 territories should check locally. This is not legal advice.

Fact-check

The attribution problem

This is the purest example on the site of a category worth naming: a quotation that exists only in translation. The idea is genuinely Aristotle’s; the sentence was written in English in 1955.

J. A. K. Thomson (1955) translator's gloss

Thomson added the clause to specify what ‘the conclusion’ referred to. It is an editorial kindness to the reader, not a rendering of any Greek phrase Wikiquote ↗.

No such sentence words absent

The line at I.9 contains no word for happiness (eudaimonia) and none for ourselves. Ross’s translation of the same sentence reads simply ‘and this will be found to agree with what we said at the outset’ Ross ↗.

‘— Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics’ unsupportable

Quote sites append the work title, implying a locatable passage. There is none. Sources also disagree on the exact Bekker line for the sentence Thomson was translating, which is a further sign nobody quoting it has looked.

Not Aristotle’s words. The phrase is a clause J. A. K. Thomson supplied in his 1955 Penguin translation of Nicomachean Ethics I.9 — and it remains in copyright the finding ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

It states the most attractive claim in ancient ethics in four words: that a good life is something you make rather than something you are given. Aristotle does argue close to this — happiness as activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, not a gift of fortune.

But he is also careful in ways the aphorism is not. He allows that external goods and plain luck matter, that a life can be damaged by misfortune, and that happiness needs a complete life to be judged. The four-word version quietly deletes all of that.

The Greek contains no word for happiness, and none for ourselves.

The same sentence, three ways

Greek (I.9, 1099b): ‘and these things would be in agreement with what was said at the beginning.’

Ross (public domain): ‘and this will be found to agree with what we said at the outset.’

Thomson (1955, in copyright): ‘The conclusion that happiness depends upon ourselves is in harmony with what I said in the first of these lectures.’

As quoted today: ‘Happiness depends upon ourselves. — Aristotle’ — the clause alone, with a citation it cannot support.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Happiness Purpose

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Aristotle — Wikiquote (disputed)en.wikiquote.org

Records the phrase as Thomson’s translator’s gloss, with the Greek it purports to render.
Nicomachean Ethics (Ross translation)en.wikisource.org

The public-domain English text — free to reuse, and visibly lacking the famous phrase.
Greek text, Bekker page 1099bwww.perseus.tufts.edu

Aristotle’s Greek at the passage in question, public domain.

Popularly credited author

Why it gets pinned on Aristotle

Aristotle

384–322 BC · Greek philosopher

Aristotle did argue, at length, that eudaimonia is achieved through virtuous activity rather than luck or external goods — so ‘happiness depends upon ourselves’ is a fair four-word summary of a real position. That is exactly what makes it dangerous: it is not a distortion of his philosophy, it is a distillation of it, which is why nobody thinks to ask whether he ever wrote the sentence. He did not. His translator did.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics I.9, Bekker 1099b. (The English phrase ‘happiness depends upon ourselves’ is J. A. K. Thomson’s addition in The Ethics of Aristotle, Penguin, 1955.)

MLA (9th ed.)

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics, I.9, Bekker 1099b. Translated by W. D. Ross, Oxford, 1925.

APA (7th ed.)

Aristotle. (1925). Nicomachean ethics (W. D. Ross, Trans.), I.9, Bekker 1099b.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Happiness depends upon ourselves’?” Last verified 20 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/happiness-depends-upon-ourselves

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