Hexis

A hexis is a stable, settled state or disposition — a lasting way of being, as against a passing condition or mere capacity. For Aristotle the concept is the key to ethics: virtue is a hexis, a firm disposition of character formed by habituation, which makes us reliably choose well.

Courage is not a single brave act but the settled state from which brave acts flow; and each such virtuous disposition lies in the mean between excess and deficiency, fixed in us by practice until right action becomes second nature. Good character, on this view, is built — one habituated choice at a time.