陶傑今天的短文是關於哲學家的。

” 歐洲在中世紀，忽然重新發現了一個人，就是古希臘的阿里士多德。時值黑暗時代，羅馬教權壟斷了思想，民間許多知識份子，僧侶、貴族，紛紛從一千五百年前的阿里士多德論著裏找解悶的出路。

比起孔子，阿里士多德的論述更豐富。孔子的論語只一兩句話，不是失諸「阿媽係女人」之簡單，像「有朋自遠方來，不亦樂乎」之類，就是一個抽象空泛的「仁」。

阿里士多德不同，有邏輯學，形而上學，生物、心理，這一切，孔子都沒有什麼深入的探討。最重要的是，阿里士多德比孔子更 user-friendly，像一件貨，對消費者想要什麼，一切考慮周到。譬如，阿里士多德討論什麼是快樂─對於商人，快樂是財富；對於紳士，快樂是名氣，追求快樂，手段要崇高，這一點，比較像孔子說的「仁」。

但阿里士多德沒有把崇高往三十三重天的高處提昇，他回到地面：阿里士多德先承認人有各樣缺點，譬如物慾的揮霍或吝嗇，衝動和怯懦，但只要以理性衡量，取乎中庸，譬如，在奢侈和吝嗇之間，就是慈善的捐獻；在衝動和怯懦之間，就是勇敢，阿里士多德沒有叫人只許做那樣，禁忌那樣，只呼籲人在不一樣的處境，判斷正反兩極，作理性的結論。

阿里士多德的論說清晰，沒有像孔子一樣受後世曲解。真正的哲學，必是清晰而無從曲解的。”

 

Some of Aristotle’s famous quote:

“Happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it…”

“All men by nature desire to know.”

“Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”

“Change in all things is sweet.”

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

Friendship is a single soul living in two bodies.”

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.”

“If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.”

“It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.”

“It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.”

“Man is by nature a political animal.”

“Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.”

“Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way…you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.”

No great genius is without an admixture of madness.”

“Philosophy is the science which considers truth.”

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

“The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.”

“The goal of war is peace, of business, leisure.”

“The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.” 

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”

“The soul never thinks without a picture.”

“We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace.”

“We live in deeds, not years: In thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”

“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”

“We cannot learn without pain.”

“Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.”

“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.”