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#38 Be Mean, Please

"For both excessive and insufficient exercise destroy one's strength, and both eating and drinking too much or too little destroy health, whereas the right quantity produces, increases or preserves it. So it is the same with temperance, courage and the other virtues... This much then, is clear: in all our conduct it is the mean that is to be commended."

~ Aristotle, 4th century bce Greek philosopher from The Nicomachean Ethics

The Mean.

Aristotle establishes the fact that virtue lies between the vice of excess and the vice of deficiency.

My favorite example of the mean is courage: If we don’t have any fear, we’re prone to rash behavior--this is a vice. If we allow our fears to overwhelm us, we’ll be cowardly--this, too, is a vice.

The virtue, of course, is with the mean: Courage.

As Aristotle reminds us, it's not about being fearless, it's about acknowledging the fear and then having the courage to do what needs to be done in spite of being afraid.

A few other examples of the mean for those curious souls:

Vice of Deficiency    :    Virtuous Mean    :    Vice of Excess
Cowardice                 :    Courage              :    Rashness
Want of Ambition      :    Right Ambition   :    Over-Ambition
Spiritlessness           :    Good Temper     :    Irascibility
Boorishness              :    Wittiness             :    Buffoonery
Shamelessness        :    Modesty              :    Bashfulness

(“Buffoonery” has to be one of my favorite words, btw. That and “hardy.” :)