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Passages similar to: Life of Pythagoras — FROM ARCHYTAS, IN HIS TREATISE CONCERNING THE GOOD AND HAPPY MAN.
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Neoplatonic
Life of Pythagoras
FROM ARCHYTAS, IN HIS TREATISE CONCERNING THE GOOD AND HAPPY MAN. (6)
Since therefore felicity is the use of virtue in prosperity, we must speak concerning virtue and prosperity, and in the first place concerning prosperity. For of goods, some indeed do not admit of excess, and this is the case with virtue. For there is not any virtue which is excessive, nor any worthy man who is beyond measure good. For virtue has the fit and becoming for a rule, and is the habit of the decorous in practical concerns. But prosperity receives excess and diminution. And when it is excessive indeed, it generates certain vices, and removes a man from his natural habit; so that he frequently through this opposes the constitution of virtue. And this is not only the case with prosperity, but many other causes likewise may effect the same thing. For it is by no means proper to wonder, that some of those who play on the pipe should be arrogant men, who, bidding farewell to truth, ensnare by a certain false imagination those who are unskilled in music; and to disbelieve that a thing of this kind does not take place in virtue. For the more venerable a thing is, so much the more numerous are those that pretend to the possession of it. For there are many things which distort the habit and form of virtue; some of which are insidious arts and affectation; others are kindred physical passions, which sometimes produce an indecorum contrary to the true disposition [of virtue.] This also is effected through manners in which men have been nurtured for a long time; and it not unfrequently happens that it is produced through youth or old age, and through prosperity or adversity; and by other very numerous ways. Hence, we ought never to wonder, if sometimes a distorted judgment is formed of all things, the true disposition being changed. Thus we see that the most excellent carpenter frequently errs in the works which are the subjects of his art; and this is also the case with the general, the pilot, the painter, and in short, with all artists. And yet at the same time we do not deprive them of the habit which they possess. For as we do not rank among bad men him who at certain times acts intemperately, or unjustly, or timidly; so neither do we place him in the class of good men, who does something right in things pertaining to temperance, or justice, or fortitude. But it must be said that the conduct of bad men in things of this kind is casually right, and that good men [sometimes] err. A true judgment however [in these instances] is to be formed, not by looking to a certain occasion, or to a certain extent of time, but to the whole of life. But as indigence and excess are injurious to the body, yet excess and what are called superfluities, are naturally adapted to produce greater diseases [than those caused by indigence]; thus also prosperity or adversity injure the soul, when they unseasonably happen; yet that which is called by all men prosperity, is naturally adapted to produce greater diseases [than adversity], since it intoxicates like wine the reasoning power of good men.
Taoist
Robber Chê. (14)
"You and your friends," replied Complacency, "regard all men as alike because they happen to be born at the same time and in the same place as...
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Taoist
Robber Chê. (16)
And the world calls them virtuous, whereby they acquire a reputation at which they never aimed." "It is necessary," argued Discontent, "to cling to re...
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Greek
Book VIII (560)
There is a battle and they gain the day, and then modesty, which they call silliness, is ignominiously thrust into exile by them, and temperance,...
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Taoist
Perfect Happiness. (1)
Are there those who can enjoy life, or not? If so, what do they do, what do they affect, what do they avoid, what do they rest in, accept, reject, lik...
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Taoist
On Letting Alone. (2)
Besides, over-refinement of vision leads to debauchery in colour; over-refinement of hearing leads to debauchery in sound; over-refinement of charity ...
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Neoplatonic
On True Happiness (15)
We do, if they are equally wise. What though the one be favoured in body and in all else that does not help towards wisdom, still less towards virtue,...
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Greek
Book X (608)
At all events we are well aware 4 that poetry being such as we have described is not to be regarded seriously as attaining to the truth; and he who li...
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Neoplatonic
Against Those That Affirm the Creator of the Kosmos and the Kosmos Itself to Be Evil (9)
Wealth and poverty, and all inequalities of that order, are made ground of complaint. But this is to ignore that the Sage demands no equality in such...
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Greek
Book I (330)
And hence they are very bad company, for they can talk about nothing but the praises of wealth. That is true, he said. Yes, that is very true, but may...
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Greek
Book IX (591)
To this nobler purpose the man of understanding will devote the energies of his life. And in the first place, he will honour studies which impress...
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Greek
Book VIII (558)
See too, I said, the forgiving spirit of democracy, and the ‘don’t care’ about trifles, and the disregard which she shows of all the fine principles...
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Neoplatonic
Happiness and Extension of Time (10)
Now to make multiplicity, whether in time or in action, essential to Happiness is to put it together by combining non-existents, represented by the pa...
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Neoplatonic
On True Happiness (14)
It would be absurd to think that happiness begins and ends with the living-body: happiness is the possession of the good of life: it is centred theref...
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Greek
Book IV (431)
Undoubtedly. And the citizens being thus agreed among themselves, in which class will temperance be found—in the rulers or in the subjects? In both, a...
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Greek
Book III (402)
Most assuredly. And when a beautiful soul harmonizes with a beautiful form, and the two are cast in one mould, that will be the fairest of sights to h...
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Greek
Book II (357)
W ITH these words I was thinking that I had made an end of the discussion; but the end, in truth, proved to be only a beginning. For Glaucon, who is...
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Greek
Book VIII (556)
Very true. They themselves care only for making money, and are as indifferent as the pauper to the cultivation of virtue. Yes, quite as indifferent. S...
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Greek
Book IV (421)
There seem to be two causes of the deterioration of the arts. What are they? Wealth, I said, and poverty. How do they act? The process is as follows:...
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Christian Mysticism
Chapter XX: The True Gnostic Exercises Patience and Self - Restraint. (39)
We must then exercise ourselves in taking care about those things which fall under the power of the passions, fleeing like those who are truly...
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Neoplatonic
Are the Stars Causes? (14)
What of poverty and riches, glory and power? In the case of inherited fortune, the stars merely announce a rich man, exactly as they announce the...
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