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6
Between sour and elderly people friendship arises less readily, inasmuch as
they are less good-tempered and enjoy companionship less; for these are thou
to be the greatest marks of friendship productive of it. This is why, while men
become friends quickly, old men do not; it is because men do not become
friends with those in whom they do not delight; and similarly sour people do
not quickly make friends either. But such men may bear goodwill to each
other; for they wish one another well and aid one another in need; but they are
hardly friends because they do not spend their days together nor delight in
each other, and these are thought the greatest marks of friendship.
One cannot be a friend to many people in the sense of having friendship of
the perfect type with them, just as one cannot be in love with many people at
once (for love is a sort of excess of feeling, and it is the nature of such only to
be felt towards one person); and it is not easy for many people at the same
time to please the same person very greatly, or perhaps even to be good in his
eyes. One must, too, acquire some experience of the other person and become
familiar with him, and that is very hard. But with a view to utility or pleasure
it is possible that many people should please one; for many people are useful
or pleasant, and these services take little time.
Of these two kinds that which is for the sake of pleasure is the more like
friendship, when both parties get the same things from each other and delight
in each other or in the things, as in the friendships of the young; for
generosity is more found in such friendships. Friendship based on utility is for
the commercially minded. People who are supremely happy, too, have no
need of useful friends, but do need pleasant friends; for they wish to live with
some one and, though they can endure for a short time what is painful, no one
could put up with it continuously, nor even with the Good itself if it were
painful to him; this is why they look out for friends who are pleasant. Perhaps
they should look out for friends who, being pleasant, are also good, and good
for them too; for so they will have all the characteristics that friends should
have.
People in positions of authority seem to have friends who fall into distinct
classes; some people are useful to them and others are pleasant, but the same
people are rarely both; for they seek neither those whose pleasantness is
accompanied by virtue nor those whose utility is with a view to noble objects,
but in their desire for pleasure they seek for ready-witted people, and their
other friends they choose as being clever at doing what they are told, and
these characteristics are rarely combined. Now we have said that the good
man is at the same time pleasant and useful; but such a man does not become
1878
back to the
book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156