| | The sentiment expressed by Aristotle in Nicomacean ethics is clear enough, the concept is captured by the paraphrased quote quite well, though I don't know where the paraphrased version originated. It's not unreasonable to boil something down from it's specific context to make a generally applicable statement when the idea itself is generally applicable.
The confusion between it and Newton's quote is spurious and likely only arose because people looked into the matter for two seconds and, finding Newton said something almost identical, rejected it as disputed. The fact of the matter is that Newton knew of this quote and idea by Aristotle, as he was a great admirer of Aristotles, as Aristotles teachings dominated natural philosophy during this time. Newton's own ideas showed him though that Aristotle was wrong about inertia. Aristotle argued that without a force pushing something it stopped moving (a reasonable assessment for the technology of the period) Newton came to understand that forces only change motion, and this contradicted Aristotle. Admiring Aristotle, Newton was stressed out by this, but eventually, citing Aristotle rejection of his teachers teachings in favor of the truth, Newton wrote in the margin of one of his notebooks the very same thing but paraphrased to his specific circumstance.
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"Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth. "
