What does it mean?
One pleasant event or one good deed is not enough to judge a whole period or a whole life.
Closest English saying: One swallow does not make a summer.
What does it literally say?
Μία χελιδών έαρ ου ποιεί
Mía helidón éar ou pií
“One swallow does not make spring.”
Aristotle quotes the proverbial image in the Nicomachean Ethics while explaining that happiness needs time and a complete life. In English the same line became “one swallow does not make a summer”.
How is it used?
“One successful training session does not yet prove steady progress.”
Where does it come from?
Ancient proverbial phrase attested in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, book I (1098a18–20). Its presence there does not prove that Aristotle invented it.
Α 7, 1098a18–20
This is an English edition of the Greek entry, which remains the reference version. The English text was written from the Greek entry with the help of AI tools and checked against it. Suggest a correction ↗