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George J. Irbe's
Favorite Quotes from Aristotle on Selected
Topics
What
did Aristotle say about:
Happiness
Human
nature
Note:
The source book for a quotation is indicated
by:
NE
for Nicomachean Ethics
POL for Politics
MET for Metaphysics
RHE for Rhetoric
SL for On the Soul
The
location of the start of a quotation is given by
the 'Berlin number' which designates, by
established convention, the consecutively numbered
pages of all of Aristotle's works in the original
Greek, and a line number on the page ('a' for left
and 'b' for right side of the page. The last name
of the translator of the quotation is also
indicated.
Happiness
NE [1097a25] (Ross) Since there are
evidently more than one end, and we choose some of
these for the sake of something else, clearly not
all ends are final ends; but the chief good is
evidently something final. Therefore, if there is
only one final end, this will be what we are
seeking, and if there are more than one, the most
final of these will be what we are seeking. . . we
call final without qualification that which is
always desirable in itself and never for the sake
of something else. Now such a thing happiness,
above all else, is held to be; for this we choose
always for itself and never for the sake of
something else .
NE [1096a34] (Rackham, I, vii, 4) . . a
thing chosen always as an end and never as a means
we call absolutely final. Now happiness above all
else appears to be absolutely final in this sense,
since we always choose it for its own sake and
never as a means to something else.
NE [1097b21] (Rackham, I, vii, 8)
Happiness, therefore, being found to be something
final and self-sufficient, is the End at which all
actions aim.
[NE [1098a7] (Rackham, I, vii, 14) .
. if we declare that the function of man is a
certain form of life, and define that form of life
as the exercise of the soul's faculties and
activities in association with rational principle,
and say that the function of a good man is to
perform these activities well and rightly, and if a
function is well performed when it is performed in
accordance with its own proper excellence &endash;
from these premises it follows that the Good of man
is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in
conformity with excellence or virtue, or if there
be several human excellences and virtues, in
conformity with the best and most perfect among
them. Moreover this activity must occupy a complete
lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor
does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief
period of happiness does not make a man supremely
blessed and happy.
NE [1098b14] (Rackham, I, viii, 2) it is
our actions and the soul's active exercise of its
functions that we posit (as being Happiness);
NE [1099a24] (Rackham, I, viii, 14)
happiness is at once the best, the noblest, and the
pleasantest of things: these qualities are not
separated.
NE [1099b11] (Ross) Now if there is any
gift of the gods to men, it is reasonable that
happiness should be god-given, and most surely
god-given of all human things inasmuch as it is the
best. But this question would perhaps be more
appropriate to another inquiry; happiness seems,
however, even if it is not god-sent but comes as a
result of virtue and some process of learning and
training, to be among the most god-like things; for
that which is the prize and end of virtue seems to
be the best thing in the world, and something
god-like and blessed.
NE [1100b9] (Rackham, I, x, 9) it is the
active exercise of our faculties in conformity with
virtue that causes happiness, and the opposite
activities its opposite.
NE [1100b19] (Rackham, I, x, 11) The
happy man . . . will be always or at least most
often employed in doing and contemplating the
things that are in conformity with virtue. And he
will bear changes of fortunes most nobly, and with
perfect propriety in every way.
NE[1101b26] (Rackham, I, xii, 4) . . no
one praises happiness as one praises justice, but
we call it a 'blessing,' deeming it something
higher and more divine than things we praise.
NE [1102a1] (Rackham, I, xii, 8)
happiness is a thing honored and perfect. This
seems to be borne out by the fact that it is a
first principle or starting-point, since all other
things that all men do are done for its sake; and
that which is the first principle and cause of
things good we agree to be something honorable and
divine.
NE [1102a5] (Rackham, I, xiii, 1)
happiness is a certain activity of soul in
conformity with perfect goodness
NE [1102a15] (Rackham, I, xiii, 5) Now
the goodness that we have to consider is clearly
human goodness, since the good or happiness which
we set out to seek was human good and human
happiness. But human goodness means in our view
excellence of soul, not excellence of body;
NE [1153b16] Rackham, VII, xiii, 2)
Happiness is essentially perfect; so that the happy
man requires in addition the goods of the body,
external goods and the gifts of fortune, in order
that his activity may not be impeded through lack
of them.
NE [1177a12] (Rackham, X, vii, 1) . . if
happiness consists in activity in accordance with
virtue, it is reasonable that it should be activity
in accordance with the highest virtue; and this
will be the virtue of the best part of us. Whether
then this be the intellect, or whatever else it be
that is thought to rule and lead us by nature, and
to have cognizance of what is noble and divine,
either as being itself also actually divine, or as
being relatively the divinest part of us, it is the
activity of this part of us in accordance with the
virtue proper to it that will constitute perfect
happiness; and it has been stated already [VI.
V. 3., xiii. 8.] that this activity is the
activity of contemplation.
NE [1177b23] (Rackham, X, vii, 7) . . it
is the activity of the intellect that constitutes
complete human happiness &endash; provided it be
granted a complete span of life, for nothing that
belongs to happiness can be incomplete.
Such a life as this however will be higher than
the human level: not in virtue of his humanity will
a man achieve it, but in virtue of something within
him that is divine; and by as much as this
something is superior to his composite nature, by
so much is its activity superior to the exercise of
the other forms of virtue. If then the intellect is
something divine in comparison with man, so is the
life of the intellect divine in comparison with
human life. Nor ought we to obey those who enjoin
that a man should have a man's thoughts and a
mortal the thoughts of mortality, but we ought so
far as possible to achieve immortality, and do all
that man may to live in accordance with the highest
thing in him; for though this be small in bulk, in
power and value it far surpasses all the rest.
NE [1178a6] (Rackham, X, vii, 9) the
life of the intellect is the best and the
pleasantest life [I. viii. 14.] for man,
inasmuch as the intellect more than anything else
is man; therefore this life will be the
happiest.
NE [1178b21] (Rackham, X, viii, 7) the
activity of God, which is transcendent in
blessedness, is the activity of contemplation; and
therefore among human activities that which is most
akin to the divine activity of contemplation will
be the greatest source of happiness.
NE [1179a1] (Rackham, X, viii, 9) . . it
must not be supposed that happiness will demand
many or great possessions; for self-sufficiency
does not depend on excessive abundance, nor does
moral conduct, and it is possible to perform noble
deeds even without being ruler of land and sea: one
can do virtuous acts with quite moderate resources.
This may be clearly observed in experience: private
citizens do not seem to be less but more given to
doing virtuous actions than princes and potentates.
It is sufficient then if moderate resources are
forthcoming; for a life of virtuous activity will
be essentially a happy life.
POL [1295a35] (Jowett) . . if what was
said in the Ethics is true, that the happy
life is the life according to virtue lived without
impediment, and that virtue is a mean, then the
life which is in a mean, and in a mean attainable
by every one, must be the best. And the same
principles of virtue and vice are characteristic of
cities and of constitutions; for the constitution
is in a figure the life of the city.
POL [1323a24] &endash; [1323b36]
(Jowett) Certainly no one will dispute the
propriety of that partition of goods which
separates them into three classes, viz., external
goods, goods of the body, and goods of the soul, or
deny that the happy man must have all three. For no
one would maintain that he is happy who has not in
him a particle of courage or temperance or justice
or prudence, who is afraid of every insect which
flutters past him, and will commit any crime,
however great, in order to gratify his lust of meat
or drink, who will sacrifice his dearest friend for
the sake of half-a-farthing, and is as feeble and
false in mind as a child or a madman. These
propositions are almost universally acknowledged as
soon as they are uttered, but men differ about the
degree or relative superiority of this or that
good. Some think that a very moderate amount of
virtue is enough, but set no limit to their desires
of wealth, property, power, reputation, and the
like. To whom we reply by an appeal to facts, which
easily prove that mankind do not acquire or
preserve virtue by the help of external goods, but
external goods by the help of virtue, and that
happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or
virtue, or both, is more often found with those who
are most highly cultivated in their mind 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; and this is not only
matter of experience, but, if reflected upon, will
easily appear to be in accordance with reason. For,
whereas external goods have a limit, like any other
instrument, and all things useful are of such a
nature that where there is too much of them they
must either do harm, or at any rate be of no use,
to their possessors, every good of the soul, the
greater it is, is also of greater use, if the
epithet useful as well as noble is appropriate to
such subjects. No proof is required to show that
the best state of one thing in relation to another
corresponds in degree of excellence to the interval
between the natures of which we say that these very
states are states: so that, if the soul is more
noble than our possessions or our bodies, both
absolutely and in relation to us, it must be
admitted that the best state of either has a
similar ratio to the other. Again, it is for the
sake of the soul that goods external and goods of
the body are eligible at all, and all wise men
ought to choose them for the sake of the soul, and
not the soul for the sake of them.
Let us acknowledge then that each one has just
so much of happiness as he has of virtue and
wisdom, and of virtuous and wise action. God is a
witness to us of this truth, for he is happy and
blessed, not by reason of any external good, but in
himself and by reason of his own nature. And herein
of necessity lies the difference between good
fortune and happiness; for external goods come of
themselves, and chance is the author of them, but
no one is just or temperate by or through chance.
In like manner, and by a similar train of argument,
the happy state may be shown to be that which is
best and which acts rightly; and rightly it cannot
act without doing right actions, and neither
individual nor state can do right actions without
virtue and wisdom. Thus the courage, justice, and
wisdom of a state have the same form and nature as
the qualities which give the individual who
possesses them the name of just, wise, or
temperate.
POL [1328a38] (Jowett) . . happiness is
the highest good, being a realization and perfect
practice of virtue, which some can attain, while
others have little or none of it, . .
POL [1332a8] (Jowett) We maintain, and
have said in the Ethics, if the arguments
there adduced are of any value, that happiness is
the realization and perfect exercise of virtue, and
this not conditional, but absolute. And I used the
term 'conditional' to express that which is
indispensable, and 'absolute' to express that which
is good in itself.
POL [1332a19] (Jowett) A good man may
make the best even of poverty and disease, and the
other ills of life; but he can only attain
happiness under the opposite conditions
Human nature
POL [1253a2] (Jowett) . . it is evident
that the state is a creation of nature, and that
man is by nature a political animal. And he who by
nature and not by mere accident is without a state,
is either a bad man or above humanity;
POL [1253a15] (Jowett) . . it is a
characteristic of man that he alone has any sense
of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like,
and the association of living beings who have this
sense makes a family and a state.
POL [1253a29] (Jowett) A social instinct
is implanted in all men by nature, and yet he who
first founded the state was the greatest of
benefactors. For man, when perfected, is the best
of animals, but, when separated from law and
justice, he is the worst of all; since armed
injustice is the more dangerous, and he is equipped
at birth with arms, meant to be used by
intelligence and virtue, which he may use for the
worst ends. Wherefore, if he have not virtue, he is
the most unholy and the most savage of animals, and
the most full of lust and gluttony. But justice is
the bond of men in states, for the administration
of justice, which is the determination of what is
just, is the principle of order in political
society.
POL [1254b13] (Jowett) Again, the male
is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and
the one rules, and the other is ruled; this
principle, of necessity, extends to all
mankind.
POL [1267b1] (Jowett) . . the avarice of
mankind is insatiable; at one time two obols was
pay enough; but now, when this sum has become
customary, men always want more and more without
end.
POL [1278b20] (Jowett) . . man is by
nature a political animal. And therefore, men, even
when they do not require one another's help, desire
to live together; not but that they are also
brought together by their common interests in
proportion as they severally attain to any measure
of well-being. This is certainly the chief end,
both of individuals and of states. And also for the
sake of mere life (in which there is possibly some
noble element so long as the evils of existence do
not greatly overbalance the good) mankind meet
together and maintain the political community. And
we all see that men cling to life even at the cost
of enduring great misfortune, seeming to find in
life a natural sweetness and happiness.
POL [1295b2] (Jowett) Now in all states
there are three elements: one class is very rich,
another very poor, and a third in a mean. It is
admitted that moderation and the mean are best, and
therefore it will be clearly best to possess the
gifts of fortune in moderation; for in that
condition of life men are most ready to follow
rational principle. But he who greatly excels in
beauty, strength, birth, or wealth, or on the other
hand who is very poor, or very weak, or very much
disgraced, finds it difficult to follow rational
principle. Of these two the one sort grow into
violent and great criminals, the others into rogues
and petty rascals.
POL [1318b2] (Jowett) . . although it
may be difficult in theory to know what is just and
equal, the practical difficulty of inducing those
to forbear who can, if they like, encroach, is far
greater, for the weaker are always asking for
equality and justice, but the stronger care for
none of these things.
POL [1319a38] (Jowett) Every man should
be responsible to others, nor should any one be
allowed to do just as he pleases; for where
absolute freedom is allowed, there is nothing to
restrain the evil which is inherent in every
man.
POL [1324b32] (Jowett) . . most men
appear to think that the art of despotic government
is statesmanship, and what men affirm to be unjust
and inexpedient in their own case they are not
ashamed of practicing towards others; they demand
just rule for themselves, but where other men are
concerned they care nothing about it. Such behavior
is irrational; unless the one party is, and the
other is not, born to serve, in which case men have
a right to command, not indeed all their fellows,
but only those who are intended to be subjects;
just as we ought not to hunt mankind, whether for
food or sacrifice . .
POL [1327b23] (Jowett) Those who live in
a cold climate and in Europe are full of spirit,
but wanting in intelligence and skill; and
therefore they retain comparative freedom, but have
no political organization, and are incapable of
ruling over others. Whereas the natives of Asia are
intelligent and inventive, but they are wanting in
spirit, and therefore they are always in a state of
subjection and slavery. But the Hellenic race,
which is situated between them, is likewise
intermediate in character, being high-spirited and
also intelligent. Hence it continues free, and is
the best-governed of any nation, and, if it could
be formed into one state, would be able to rule the
world.
POL [1328a37] (Jowett) . . whereas
happiness is the highest good, being a realization
and perfect practice of virtue, which some can
attain, while others have little or none of it, the
various qualities of men are clearly the reason why
there are various kinds of states and many forms of
government; for different men seek after happiness
in different ways and by different means, and so
make for themselves different modes of life and
forms of government.
POL [1332a39] (Jowett) There are three
things which make men good and virtuous; these are
nature, habit, rational principle. In the first
place, every one must be born a man and not some
other animal; so, too, he must have a certain
character, both of body and soul. But some
qualities there is no use in having at birth, for
they are altered by habit, and there are some gifts
which by nature are made to be turned by habit to
good or bad. Animals lead for the most part a life
of nature, although in lesser particulars some are
influenced by habit as well. Man has rational
principle, in addition, and man only. Wherefore
nature, habit, rational principle must be in
harmony with one another; for they do not always
agree; men do many things against habit and nature,
if rational principle persuades them that they
ought. We have already determined what natures are
likely to be most easily molded by the hands of the
legislator. All else is the work of education; we
learn some things by habit and some by
instruction.
POL [1334b14] (Jowett) . . in men
rational principle and mind are the end towards
which nature strives, so that the birth and moral
discipline of the citizens ought to be ordered with
a view to them. In the second place, as the soul
and body are two, we see also that there are two
parts of the soul, the rational and the irrational,
and two corresponding states - reason and appetite.
And as the body is prior in order of generation to
the soul, so the irrational is prior to the
rational. The proof is that anger and wishing and
desire are implanted in children from their very
birth, but reason and understanding are developed
as they grow older. Wherefore, the care of the body
ought to precede that of the soul, and the training
of the appetitive part should follow: none the less
our care of it must be for the sake of the reason,
and our care of the body for the sake of the
soul.
NE [1111b25] (Rackham, III, ii, 8) . .
no one chooses what does not rest with himself, but
only what he thinks can be attained by his own
act.
NE [1121b15] (Rackham, IV, i, 37) . .
[Meanness] is more ingrained in man's
nature than Prodigality; the mass of mankind are
avaricious rather than open-handed.
NE [1125a29] (Rackham, IV, iii, 21) . .
those who merely possess the goods of fortune may
be haughty and insolent; . . . they try to imitate
the great-souled man without being really like him,
and only copy him in what they can, reproducing his
contempt for others but not his virtuous conduct.
For the great-souled man is justified in despising
other people &endash; his estimates are correct;
but most proud men have no good ground for their
pride.
NE [1139b4] (Rackham, VI, ii, 5) Man, as
an originator of action, is a union of desire and
intellect.
NE [1144b4] (Rackham, VI, xiii, 1) All
are agreed that the various moral qualities are in
a sense bestowed by nature: we are just, and
capable of temperance, and brave, and possessed of
the other virtues from the moment of our birth. But
nevertheless we expect to find that true goodness
is something different, and that the virtues in the
true sense come to belong to us in another way. For
even children and wild animals possess the natural
dispositions, yet without Intelligence these may
manifestly be harmful.
NE [1150a1] (Rackham, VII, vi, 7)
Brutality is less <evil> than vice, though
more horrible: for <in a brutal man as in an
animal> the highest part <i.e., the
intellect> is not corrupted as it is in a man
<who is wicked in a human way>, but entirely
lacking. So that it is like comparing an inanimate
with an animate thing, and asking which is the more
evil; for the badness of a thing which has no
originating principle &endash; and intelligence is
such a principle &endash; is always less capable of
mischief. (It is therefore like comparing Injustice
with an unjust man: one is worse in one way and the
other in another). [Injustice is worse in the
sense that it is evil per se (whereas the
unjust man is evil per accidens), but the
unjust man is worse in the sense that he is
productive of evil.] For a bad man can do ten
thousand times the more harm than an animal <or
a brute man>.
NE [1152a25] (Rackham, VII, x, 4) Both
Self-restraint and Unrestraint are a matter of
extremes as compared with the character of the mass
of mankind; the restrained man shows more and the
unrestrained man less steadfastness than most men
are capable of.
NE [1153b33] (Rackham, VII, xiii, 6) . .
as the pleasures of the body are the ones which we
most often meet with, and as all men are capable of
these, these have usurped the family title; and
some men think these are the only pleasures that
exist, because they are the only ones which they
know.
NE [1155b17] (Rackham, VIII, ii, 1) It
seems that not everything is loved, but only what
is lovable, and that this is either what is good,
or pleasant, or useful. But useful may be taken to
mean productive of some good or of pleasure, so
that the class of things lovable as ends is reduced
to the good and the pleasant. Then, do men like
what is really good, or what is good for them? for
sometimes the two may be at variance; and the same
with what is pleasant. Now it appears that each
person loves what is good for himself, and that
while what is really good is lovable absolutely,
what is good for a particular person is lovable for
that person. Further, each person loves not what is
really good for himself, but what appears to him to
be so.
NE [1162a15] (Rackham, VIII, xii, 7) The
friendship between husband and wife appears to be a
natural instinct; since man is by nature a pairing
creature even more than he is a political creature,
inasmuch as the family is an earlier and more
fundamental institution than the State, and the
procreation of offspring a more general
characteristic [more universal than the
gregarious instinct, which finds its highest
expression in the state] of the animal
creation. So whereas with the other animals the
association of the sexes aims only at continuing
the species, human beings cohabit not only for the
sake of begetting children but also to provide the
needs of life; for with the human race division of
labor begins at the outset, and man and woman have
different functions; thus they supply each other's
wants by putting their special capacities into the
common stock. Hence the friendship of man and wife
seems to be one of utility and pleasure combined.
But it may also be based on virtue, if the partners
be of high moral character; for either sex has its
special virtue, and this may be the ground of
attraction. Children, too, seem to be a bond of
union, and therefore childless marriages are more
easily dissolved; for children are a good possessed
by both parents in common, and common property
holds people together.
NE [1162b35] (Rackham, VIII, xiii, 8) .
. all men, or most men, wish what is noble but
choose what is profitable; and while it is noble to
render a service not with an eye to receiving one
in return, it is profitable to receive one. One
ought therefore, if one can, to return the
equivalent of services received, and to do so
willingly; for one ought not to make a man one's
friend if one is unwilling to return his
favors.
NE [1169a15] (Rackham, IX, viii, 8) With
the bad man therefore, what he does is not in
accord with what he ought to do, but the good man
does what he ought, since intelligence always
chooses for itself that which is best, and the good
man obeys his intelligence.
NE [1176a10] (Rackham, X, v, 9) . .in
the human species at all events there is a great
diversity of pleasures. The same things delight
some men and annoy others, and things painful and
disgusting to some are pleasant and attractive to
others.
NE [1176a19] (Rackham, X, v, 10) . . Nor
need it cause surprise that things disagreeable to
the good man should seem pleasant to some men; for
mankind is liable to many corruptions and diseases,
and the things in question are not really pleasant,
but only pleasant to these particular persons, who
are in a condition to think them so.
NE [1179b4] (Rackham, X, ix, 3) Now if
discourses on ethics were sufficient in themselves
to make men virtuous, 'large fees and many' (as
Theogonis says) 'would they win' quite rightly, and
to provide such discourse would be all that is
wanted. But as it is, we see that although theories
have power to stimulate and encourage generous
youths, and, given an inborn nobility of character
and a genuine love of what is noble, can make them
susceptible to the influence of virtue, yet they
are powerless to stimulate the mass of mankind to
moral nobility. For it is the nature of the many to
be amenable to fear but not to a sense of honor,
and to abstain from evil not because of its
baseness but because of the penalties it entails;
since, living as they do by passion, they pursue
the pleasures akin to their nature, and the things
that will procure those pleasures, and avoid the
opposite pains, but have not even a notion of what
is noble and truly pleasant, having never tasted
true pleasure. What theory can reform the natures
of men like these? To dislodge by argument habits
long firmly rooted in their characters is difficult
if not impossible. We may doubtless think ourselves
fortunate if we attain some measure of virtue when
all the things believed to make men virtuous are
ours.
NE [1179b20] (Rackham, X, ix, 6)Now some
thinkers hold that virtue is a gift of nature;
others think we become good by habit, others that
we can be taught to be good. Natural endowment is
obviously not under our control; it is bestowed on
those who are fortunate, in the true sense, by some
divine dispensation. Again, theory and teaching are
not, I fear, equally efficacious in all cases: the
soil must have been previously tilled if it is to
foster the seed, the mind of the pupil must have
been prepared by the cultivation of habits, so as
to like and dislike aright. For he that lives at
the dictates of passion will not hear nor
understand the reasoning of one who tries to
dissuade him; but if so, how can you change his
mind by argument?
And, speaking generally, passion seems not to be
amenable to reason, but only to force.
RHE[1368b15] (Roberts, I, x) For the
wrongs a man does to others will correspond to the
bad quality or qualities that he himself possesses.
Thus it is the mean man who will wrong others about
money, the profligate in matters of physical
pleasure, the effeminate in matters of comfort, and
the coward where danger is concerned - his terror
makes him abandon those who are involved in the
same danger. The ambitious man does wrong for the
sake of honor, the quick-tempered from anger, the
lover of victory for the sake of victory, the
embittered man for the sake of revenge, the stupid
man because he has misguided notions of right and
wrong, the shameless man because he does not mind
what people think of him; and so with the rest -
any wrong that any one does to others corresponds
to his particular faults of character.
RHE[1387b11](Roberts, II, x) To take
Envy next: we can see on what grounds, against what
persons, and in what states of mind we feel it.
Envy is pain at the sight of such good fortune as
consists of the good things already mentioned; we
feel it towards our equals; not with the idea of
getting something for ourselves, but because the
other people have it. We shall feel it if we have,
or think we have, equals; and by 'equals' I mean
equals in birth, relationship, age, disposition,
distinction, or wealth. We feel envy also if we
fall but a little short of having everything; which
is why people in high places and prosperity feel it
- they think every one else is taking what belongs
to themselves. Also if we are exceptionally
distinguished for some particular thing, and
especially if that thing is wisdom or good fortune.
Ambitious men are more envious than those who are
not. So also those who profess wisdom; they are
ambitious - to be thought wise. Indeed, generally,
those who aim at a reputation for anything are
envious on this particular point. And small-minded
men are envious, for everything seems great to
them. The good things which excite envy have
already been mentioned. The deeds or possessions
which arouse the love of reputation and honor and
the desire for fame, and the various gifts of
fortune, are almost all subject to envy; and
particularly if we desire the thing ourselves, or
think we are entitled to it, or if having it puts
us a little above others, or not having it a little
below them. It is clear also what kind of people we
envy; that was included in what has been said
already: we envy those who are near us in time,
place, age, or reputation. Hence the line:
Ay,
kin can even be jealous of their kin.
Also our fellow competitors, who
are indeed the people just mentioned - we do not
compete with men who lived a hundred centuries ago,
or those yet not born, or the dead, or those who
dwell near the Pillars of Hercules, or those whom,
in our opinion or that of others, we take to be far
below us or far above us. So too we compete with
those who follow the same ends as ourselves; we
compete with our rivals in sport or in love, and
generally with those who are after the same things;
and it is therefore these whom we are bound to envy
beyond all others. Hence the saying:
Potter
against potter.
We
also envy those whose possessions of or success in
a thing is a reproach to us: these are our
neighbors and our equals; for it is clear that it
is our own fault we have missed the good thing in
question; this annoys us, and excites envy in us.
We also envy those who have what we ought to have,
or have got what we did have once. Hence old men
envy younger men, and those who have spent much
envy those who have spent little on the same thing.
And men who have not got a thing, or not got it
yet, envy those who have got it quickly. We can
also see what things and what persons give pleasure
to envious people, and in what states of mind they
feel it: the states of mind in which they feel pain
are those under which they will feel pleasure in
the contrary things. If therefore we ourselves with
whom the decision rests are put in an envious state
of mind, and those for whom our pity, or the award
of something desirable, is claimed are such as have
been described, it is obvious that they will win no
pity from us.
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