Aristotle’s discussion of great soul (megalopsychia) is worth quoting here, at least in part, because it evidently has influenced a great number of my readers.
“A person is thought to be great-souled if he claims much and deserves much (as Socrates did in the Apology when he said he deserved the greatest honor Athens could bestow)…he that claims less than he deserves is small souled…the great-souled man is justified in despising other people—his estimates are correct; but most proud men have no ground for their pride…he is fond of conferring benefits, but ashamed to receive them, because the former is is a mark of superiority and the latter of inferiority…It is also characteristic of the great souled men never to ask for help from others, or only with reluctance, but to render aid willingly; and to be haughty towards those of position and fortune, but courteous to those of moderate station…he must be open both in love and in hate, since concealment shows timidity; and cares more about the truth than what people will think…he is outspoken and frank, except when speaking with ironical self depreciation, as he does to common people…He does not bear a grudge, for it is not a mark of greatness of soul to recall things against people, especially the wrongs they have done you, but rather to overlook them. He is not given to speaking evil himself, even of his enemies, except when he deliberately, intends to give offense…Such then being the great souled man, the corresponding character on the side of deficiency is the small souled man, and on that of excess, the vain man.”
Nicomachean Ethics IV. 3 Rackman translation Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University press 1947
116
The great epochs of our life comes when we gain the courage to rechristen our evil as what is best in us.
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Epigrams and Interludes, Kaufman translation 1967
44
The liberals in North America “strive with all their powers for the green pasture happiness of the herd, with security, lack of danger, comfort and an easier life for everyone…the two songs they repeat most often; “equality of rights” and “sympathy for all that suffers”…and suffering itself they take for something that must be abolished.”
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil The Free Spirit, Kaufman translation 1967
Took a long walk to day in the forest
and noticed how thin the trees were,
rarely would i see a thick trunked monster,
and the ones i did spot were deformed.
If it is true that human being have used
up close to 90% of the worlds resources,
giving a 110% may have a whole
new set of implications…
At first glance it would seem things have gone terribly wrong.
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