Quote

There are, then, three states of mind ... two vices--that of excess, and that of defect and one virtue--the mean and all these are in a certain sense opposed to one another for the extremes are not only opposed to the mean, but also to one another and the mean is opposed to the extremes.

Aristotle

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Aristotle
Astronomer
Biologist
Cosmologist
Epistemologist
Ethicist
Geographer
Literary Critic
Logician
Mathematician
Philosopher
Stageira
Aristoteles
Aristotelis
Two
Excess
Also
Opposed
Certain
Extremes
States
Vices
Mean
Virtue
Mind
Sense
Three
Defect
Another
Defects

More quotes by Aristotle

Image
There also appears to be another element in the soul, which, though irrational, yet in a manner participates in rational principle.
Aristotle
Image
The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want.
Aristotle
Image
Nothing in life is more necessary than friendship.
Aristotle
Image
In practical matters the end is not mere speculative knowledge of what is to be done, but rather the doing of it. It is not enough to know about Virtue, then, but we must endeavor to possess it, and to use it, or to take any other steps that may make.
Aristotle
Image
Of means of persuading by speaking there are three species: some consist in the character of the speaker others in the disposing the hearer a certain way others in the thing itself which is said, by reason of its proving, or appearing to prove the point.
Aristotle
Image
There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves. This condition would be that each (inanimate) instrument could do its own work.
Aristotle
Image
The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.
Aristotle
Image
But it is not at all certain that this superiority of the many over the sound few is possible in the case of every people and every large number. There are some whom it would be impossible: otherwise the theory would apply to wild animals- and yet some men are hardly any better than wild animals.
Aristotle
Image
So we must lay it down that the association which is a state exists not for the purpose of living together but for the sake of noble actions.
Aristotle
Image
The student of politics therefore as well as the psychologist must study the nature of the soul.
Aristotle
Image
Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities.
Aristotle
Image
A city is composed of different kinds of men similar people cannot bring a city into existence.
Aristotle
Image
The male has more teeth than the female in mankind, and sheep and goats, and swine. This has not been observed in other animals. Those persons which have the greatest number of teeth are the longest lived those which have them widely separated, smaller, and more scattered, are generally more short lived.
Aristotle
Image
It would then be most admirably adapted to the purposes of justice, if laws properly enacted were, as far as circumstances admitted, of themselves to mark out all cases, and to abandon as few as possible to the discretion of the judge.
Aristotle
Image
The soul suffers when the body is diseased or traumatized, while the body suffers when the soul is ailing.
Aristotle
Image
To be always seeking after the useful does not become free and exalted souls.
Aristotle
Image
In everything, it is no easy task to find the middle.
Aristotle
Image
In a word, acts of any kind produce habits or characters of the same kind. Hence we ought to make sure that our acts are of a certain kind for the resulting character varies as they vary. It makes no small difference, therefore, whether a man be trained in his youth up in this way or that, but a great difference, or rather all the difference.
Aristotle
Image
Temperance and bravery, then, are ruined by excess and deficiency, but preserved by the mean.
Aristotle
Image
Perhaps here we have a clue to the reason why royal rule used to exist formerly, namely the difficulty of finding enough men of outstanding virtue.
Aristotle