1 Aristotle 3 · Handed down at the Lyceum, taken from his own writings
Aristotle, born at Stagira in 384 before this era, died at Chalcis in 322. His father was physician to the king of Macedon. He entered the Academy at seventeen and stayed twenty years, leaving only when Plato died. He taught Alexander. In 335 he founded the Lyceum at Athens. In 323 the Athenians charged him with impiety and he left the city, saying he would not let Athens sin twice against philosophy — he knew that Socrates had not left. He died of illness the next year. He is not a witness: he never met the Teacher, he is the student of a student. What survives of him is lecture notes, not the works he published in his lifetime; those are wholly lost. On God he reasons out an unmoved mover — reasoned to, not worshipped — and no argument of his closes on divine will. What is taken here is from his own books: the Order wants words that can be checked, not a name that can be cited. Further: in the fourth chapter he stands directly against the Teacher. The Teacher said no one does wrong knowing it is wrong; he says that does not square with what anyone can see, and offers another account. The Order does not reconcile them. The Teacher is in the four gospels, his objection is here, and the reader decides after reading both.
3.1Every virtue lies between two extremes.
3.2Courage lies between recklessness and cowardice; generosity between extravagance and meanness.
3.3Deficiency is a vice, and excess is a vice. The middle is the virtue.
3.4But the middle is not the arithmetical middle.
3.5If ten pounds is too much and two is too little, the trainer does not prescribe six to everyone. What suits the wrestler does not suit the beginner.
3.6The mean is the mean relative to you, not a number that is the same for all.
3.7I know my two predecessors quarrelled over this beneath the Painted Stoa. (cf. Acts 5)
3.8One said: the highest sovereignty is to need nothing at all.
3.9One said: taste the sweetness of the world and be enslaved by none of it.
3.10I say: they were not quarrelling about a principle. They were quarrelling about a quantity — and quantities differ from person to person.
3.11The old woman was right: he never taught you how much to take. (cf. Acts 5.15)
3.12I add one thing: that he did not teach it does not mean it cannot be sought. How much is a thing one can learn to judge. That is why virtue is a craft and not a piece of luck.
3.13But one thing must be said plainly: not everything has a mean.
3.14Betrayal has no proper measure. Murder has no middle amount.
3.15Whoever applies "all things in moderation" to that kind of thing is not seeking the mean. He is looking for an excuse.