The aim of all human action is for good, and any virtuous act is good. A virtuous act must be based on rationality and only acted on after careful deliberation by the individual. Therefore, a virtuous individual must be knowledgeable about what is good, must only make choices after careful deliberation, and must be a good judge of proper action. These virtuous characteristics come from experience, training, an environment conducive to learning, a love of rationality, and good habits developed from constant practice. Aristotle reasoned that because humans base most of their decisions on the amount of happiness they bring, a moral principle must address the way pain and pleasure fits into our decision making process.
Pleasure causes humans to do base actions.
Pain keeps us from doing noble actions. Virtue involves maintaining a balance between pain and pleasure. Aristotle stressed that this moderation of pain and pleasure is an extremely important aspect of virtue. The mean between excess vices and deficient vices must always be pursued. Vices cause us to not act virtuous in dealing with pleasure and pain.