How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Bekker #s); all Bekker line numbers are approximate, since they are keyed to the original Greek.
Quote #7
And every art is concerned with the process of coming-into-being, that is, with artfully contriving and contemplating how something that admits either of existing or not existing may come into being, the origin of which lies in the person making but not in the thing made. (6.4.1140a11-14)
When Aristotle speaks of art, he's not exclusively speaking of the kind of thing you might find in an art gallery. Art consists of a technical knowledge that produces something—shoes, houses, furniture, clothing—and coincides with our modern understanding of craft (and craftsmen). Art deals with "things that admit to being otherwise"—those things that aren't part of fixed knowledge and culminates in the creation of something, rather than simply in action. It is a way of getting at truth, and it represents how we interact with our world and interpret it.
Quote #8
They define living in the case of animals as a capacity for perception, and in the case of human beings as a capacity for perception or thought. But a capacity is traced back to its activity, and what is authoritative resides in the activity. So it seems that living is, in the authoritative sense, perceiving or thinking. And living is among the things in themselves good and pleasant... (9.9.1170a16-20)
While it seems that Aristotle is equating human perception with animal perception, that's not the case here. Human perception is marked by intellect, comprehension, and deliberation—an active engagement with the world around us. Though this is little more than contemplation (i.e. it isn't an activity in the same way that running or mountain climbing is), it is the basic thing that defines us as human and the thing that is most pleasant for us to do. Coincidence?
Quote #9
The result is that if we are perceiving something, we also perceive that we are perceiving; and if we are thinking, that we are thinking. And to perceive that we are perceiving or thinking is to perceive that we exist...Moreover, perceiving that one lives belongs among the things pleasant in themselves, for life is by nature a good thing, and to perceive the good present in oneself is pleasant...(9.9.1170a32-1170b2)
Try not to think about this one too hard. If you're familiar with René Descartes "I think, therefore I am," you've grasped the phrasing. Aristotle points to the awareness of our own existences as key to the human experience, and the greatest pleasure that we have as living creatures.
This is because life's already a good thing—without it, there's nothing—but to the good person, existence is even better. Such a person has much to love about himself and also what he needs to be self-sufficient. To contemplate so much good, then, must be the very best pleasure of life.