Full Idea
It is by deliberately choosing good things or bad things that we are people of a certain sort, not by believing them.
Gist of Idea
Character is determined and revealed by how actions are chosen (and not by beliefs)
Source
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1112a01)
A Reaction
….So we know character not by mere action, or by mere beliefs expressed, but by the reasons that people have for what they do. For Aristotle character concerns how we act, and not just how we are when sitting quietly.
Book Reference
Aristotle: 'Nicomachean Ethics', ed/tr. Reeve, C.D.C. [Hackett 2024], p.39
Related Idea
Idea 24325 Deliberate choices (rather than actions) best reveal character [Aristotle]