1-ON THE SUBJECT OF "VIRTUE," CONSIDER THE QUOTE OF CONFUCIUS NEAR THE BOTTOM OF WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE. cowardice, a deficiency, which is more opposed to courage, nor
is it insensibility, a deficiency, but licentiousness, an
excess, which is more opposed to temperance. There are two
reasons why this should be so. One lies in the nature of the
matter itself; for when one of two extremes is nearer and more
like the mean, it is not this extreme but its opposite that we
chiefly contrast with the mean. For instance, as foolhardiness
seems more like and nearer to courage than cowardice, it is
cowardice that we chiefly contrast with courage; for things
further removed from the mean seem to be more opposite to it.
This reason lies in the nature of the matter itself; there is a
second which lies in our own nature. The things to which we
ourselves are naturally more inclined we think more opposed to
the mean. Thus we are ourselves naturally more inclined to
pleasures than to their opposites, and are more prone therefore
to self-indulgence than to moderation. Accordingly we speak of
those things in which we are more likely to run to great lengths
as more opposed to the mean. Hence licentiousness, which is an
excess, seems more opposed to temperance than insensibility.
CHAPTER 9. We have now sufficiently shown that moral virtue1 is a mean, and in what sense it is so; that it is a mean as lying between two vices, a vice of excess on the one side and a vice of deficiency on the other, and as aiming at the mean in emotion and action.
That is why it is so hard to be good; for it is always hard to find the mean in anything; it is not everyone but only a man of science who can find the mean or center of a circle. So too anybody can get angry--that is easy--and anybody can give or spend money, but to give it to the right person, to give the right amount of it, at the right time, for the right cause and in the right way, this is not what anybody can do, nor is it easy. That is why goodness is rare and praise worthy and noble. One then who aims at a mean must begin by
1-ON THE SUBJECT OF "VIRTUE," CONSIDER THE QUOTE OF CONFUCIUS NEAR THE BOTTOM OF WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
DON'T THINK THE WISDOM OF THOMAS JEFFERSON IS PASSÉ YET IN WHAT YOU ARE ENTITLED TO FROM YOUR GOVERNMENT? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD: TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE TO SIGN MY GUESTBOOK.