Summary and Analysis
Book I:
Chapter XII - The Degree of Praise Accorded to Happiness
Summary
Having settled these questions, it would be worthwhile to decide whether happiness is something to be praised or something to be honored and valued. Observation shows that there are many different kinds of praise, and that praise is bestowed on something in regard to the quality of that thing and the relation it has to other things. This indicates that praise is appropriate only for relative goods or potential goods. Happiness, on the other hand, is an absolute good, for it is the final and ultimate good, the best of all things, and something to which nothing else may be compared. Thus, happiness must be considered as something divine, worthy of the highest approbation.