“Again, it is possible to fail in many ways (for evil belongs to the class of the unlimited … and good to that of the limited), while to succeed is possible only in one way (for which reason also one is easy and the other difficult—to miss the mark easy, to hit it difficult); for these reasons also, then, excess and defect are characteristic of vice, and the mean of virtue; For men are good in but one way, but bad in many.”

Book II, 1106b.28
Nicomachean Ethics

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update April 14, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Again, it is possible to fail in many ways (for evil belongs to the class of the unlimited … and good to that of the li…" by Aristotle?
Aristotle photo
Aristotle 230
Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder o… -384–-321 BC

Related quotes

Albert Einstein photo

“It is a scale of proportions which makes the bad difficult and the good easy.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Er ist eine Skala der Proportionen, die das Schlechte schwierig und das Gute leicht macht.
On the Modulor. Letter sent to Le Corbusier (1946); quoted in Modulor (1953)
1940s

Yi Hwang photo
Franz Kafka photo
Melissa de la Cruz photo

“Evil was seductive and easy, and virtue was difficult and unappreciated.”

Melissa de la Cruz (1971) American writer

Source: Gates of Paradise

Michael Crichton photo

“Most of us have had some experience interacting with religious fundamentalists, and we understand that one of the problems with fundamentalists is that they have no perspective on themselves. They never recognize that their way of thinking is just one of many other possible ways of thinking, which may be equally useful or good.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

Environmentalism as a Religion (2003)
Context: Most of us have had some experience interacting with religious fundamentalists, and we understand that one of the problems with fundamentalists is that they have no perspective on themselves. They never recognize that their way of thinking is just one of many other possible ways of thinking, which may be equally useful or good. On the contrary, they believe their way is the right way, everyone else is wrong; they are in the business of salvation, and they want to help you to see things the right way. They want to help you be saved. They are totally rigid and totally uninterested in opposing points of view. In our modern complex world, fundamentalism is dangerous because of its rigidity and its imperviousness to other ideas.

Tom Clancy photo
Confucius photo
Morarji Desai photo

“It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.”

Morarji Desai (1896–1995) Former Indian Finance Minister, Freedom Fighters, Former prime minister

19th World Vegetarian Congress 1967

Ashoka photo

Related topics