The More You Know the More You See Example

This is likely to be an ongoing listing. If yous take any additions, explanations, or counterclaims, leave a comment and we will integrate it. The Kiwi Hellenist has started a blog for some other authors.

ane. "It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting information technology"

This is probably a willful twisting of something from the Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ideals , ane, 1094a24-1095a

"Information technology is right that we ask [people] to accept each of the things which are said in the same way: for it is the mark of an educated person to search for the aforementioned kind of clarity in each topic to the extent that the nature of the thing accepts it. For it is like to expect a mathematician to speak persuasively or for an orator to furnish clear proofs!

Each person judges well what they know and is thus a proficient critic of those things. For each affair in specific, someone must exist educated [to be a critic]; to [be a critic in full general] i must be educated about everything."

τὸν αὐτὸν δὴ τρόπον καὶ ἀποδέχεσθαι χρεὼν ἕκαστα τῶν λεγομένων· πεπαιδευομένου γάρ ἐστιν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον τἀκριβὲς ἐπιζητεῖν καθ' ἕκαστον γένος, ἐφ' ὅσον ἡ τοῦ πράγματος φύσις ἐπιδέχεται· παραπλήσιον γὰρ φαίνεται μαθηματικοῦ τε πιθανολογοῦντος ἀποδέχεσθαι καὶ ῥητορικὸν ἀποδείξεις ἀπαιτεῖν. ἕκαστος δὲ κρίνει καλῶς ἃ γινώσκει, καὶ τούτων ἐστὶν ἀγαθὸς κριτής. καθ' ἕκαστον μὲν ἄρα ὁ πεπαιδευμένος, ἁπλῶς δ' ὁ περὶ πᾶν πεπαιδευμένος.

2. "A Whole is greater than the sum of its parts"

This really popular misattribution may be a poor translation of the Metaphysics

Aristotle, Metaphysics 8.half dozen [=1045a]

"For all the same many things accept a plurality of parts and are not merely a complete aggregate simply instead some kind of a whole beyond its parts, there is some cause of it since even in bodies, for some the fact that the there is contact is the crusade of a unity/oneness while for others in that location is viscosity or another characteristic of this sort.

πάντων γὰρ ὅσα πλείω μέρη ἔχει καὶ μή ἐστιν οἷον σωρὸς τὸ πᾶν ἀλλ᾿ ἔστι τι τὸ ὅλον παρὰ τὰ μόρια, ἔστι τι αἴτιον, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐν τοῖς σώμασι τοῖς μὲν ἁφὴ αἰτία τοῦ ἓν εἶναι, τοῖς δὲ γλισχρότης ἤ τι πάθος ἕτερον τοιοῦτον.

iii. "Educating the mind without educating the eye is no education at all." [and many variations thereof]

This one has admittedly no ground. Aristotle says many things near education, this just own't one of them.

4. "Nosotros are What we repeatedly practice. Excellence is an human activity, non a habit."

This one is has likely slipped into the Internet Aristotle Quotarium from Volition Durant'south misconstruing of the Nicomachean Ideals. Indeed, this has been debunked more than a few times. Here's some other version: "Excellence is not a singular deed only a habit. You are what yous do repeatedly." in that location are many variants

Here'south the closest Aristotle actually gets:

Aristotle , Nicomachean Ethics , 1105b

"Information technology is therefore well said that a person becomes just by doing simply things and prudent from practicing wisdom. And, no one could always approach being good without doing these things. But many who do non practice them flee to argument and believe that they are practicing philosophy and that they volition go serious men in this manner. They human action the style sick people exercise who heed to their doctors seriously and then exercise null of what they were prescribed. Just every bit these patients will not end up healthy from treating their body in this style, and then most people won't change their soul with such philosophy."

εὖ οὖν λέγεται ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ τὰ δίκαια πράττειν ὁ δίκαιος γίνεται καὶ ἐκ τοῦ τὰ σώφρονα ὁ σώφρων· ἐκ δὲ τοῦ μὴ πράττειν ταῦτα οὐδεὶς ἂν οὐδὲ μελλήσειε γίνεσθαι ἀγαθός. ἀλλ' οἱ πολλοὶ ταῦτα μὲν οὐ πράττουσιν, ἐπὶ δὲ τὸν λόγον καταφεύγοντες οἴονται φιλοσοφεῖν καὶ οὕτως ἔσεσθαι σπουδαῖοι, ὅμοιόν τι ποιοῦντες τοῖς κάμνουσιν, οἳ τῶν ἰατρῶν ἀκούουσι μὲν ἐπιμελῶς, ποιοῦσι δ' οὐδὲν τῶν προσταττομένων. ὥσπερ οὖν οὐδ' ἐκεῖνοι εὖ ἕξουσι τὸ σῶμα οὕτω θεραπευόμενοι, οὐδ' οὗτοι τὴν ψυχὴν οὕτω φιλοσοφοῦντες.

5. "Knowing Yourself is the Beginning of all Wisdom"

No. I don't even need to wait this upward. No. No. No. This is a version of the Delphic Oracles "know thyself" Γνῶθι σαυτόν. At least attribute it to Plato or Aristotle something. Or do what Diogenes Laertius does at requite it to Pittakos (one.79.x)

6. "Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild creature or a god."

This is near Aristotle. It is more often than not Francis Bacon ('Essays', XXVII "On Friendship" (1612, rewritten 1625). Aristotle said something not to far off, merely even so not this

Aristotle, Politics 1.ii 1253a25–30

"It is articulate that the country is naturally prior to each individual person. If each person when separated is non sufficient on his own, just equally other parts are to the whole while a person who is incapable of joining commonwealth or does not demand any part of a state because of self-sufficiency is either a animal or a god."

ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἡ πόλις καὶ φύσει πρότερον ἢ ἕκαστος, δῆλον. εἰ γὰρ μὴ αὐτάρκης ἕκαστος χωρισθείς, ὁμοίως τοῖς ἄλλοις μέρεσιν ἕξει πρὸς τὸ ὅλον, ὁ δὲ μὴ δυνάμενος κοινωνεῖν ἢ μηθὲν δεόμενος δι᾿ αὐτάρκειαν οὐθὲν μέρος πόλεως, ὥστε ἢ θηρίον ἢ θεός.

7. "Where the needs of the globe and your talents cross, there lies your vocation."

This is totally super-capitalist, corporate double-speak nonsense. It does not even remotely audio similar Aristotle. I am not sure where it comes from and I cannot find it debunked, but I will keep looking.

8. "Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the piece of work."

This one is likely a mistranslation or an attribution of a lost saying past Seneca in On Tranquility of mind. But I tin can't really justify that by what I accept establish in the Seneca. Regardless, this is more neo-capitalist nonsense. I accept a hard fourth dimension believing this is anywhere in Aristotle.

A few twitter correspondents responded that this sounds a picayune flake like the end of theNicomachean Ethics where Aristotle writes "pleasure brings completion to an activity" (τελειοῖ δὲ τὴν ἐνέργειανἡ ἡδονή, 1174b). I volition not claim that this sounds nothing like the apocryphal translation higher up, but I will insist that in its context, Aristotle'south comment has cipher to do with "work" in the mode it is construed, just instead this is nearly aesthetic pleasance. The worst version of this meme is this terrible, no-skilful, evil version:

Annotation the double emphasis on piece of work? This is the kind of poster a middle manager puts upwardly to 'motivate' his underpaid minions earlier he drives abode in his Porsche….

9. "Well-begun is half washed"

This is not really Aristotle. The thought is proverbial even when information technology is kind of quoted by Aristotle. But these words belong to someone else. Here is as close as Aristotle gets:

Aristotle, Politics 5, 1303b

"For the mistake happens in the beginning and the beginning is said to exist one-half of the whole, and then that even a small-scale error at the outset is equal to those fabricated at dissimilar stages."

ἐν ἀρχῇ γὰρ γίγνεται τὸ ἁμάρτημα, ἡ δ᾿ ἀρχὴ λέγεται ἥμισυ εἶναι παντός, ὥστε καὶ τὸ ἐν αὐτῇ μικρὸν ἁμάρτημα ἀνάλογόν ἐστι πρὸς τὰ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις μέρεσιν.

This particular quotation comes from the Benjamin Jowett translation and is replicated on the wikiquote site. Aristotle in phrasing this as "it is said" (λέγεται) is marking the line equally a saying. Horace'southward "The one who has begun has completed half the task." dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet (Epistle one.2) is closer to the popular version. Hesiod has "fool does not know that half is greater than the whole" ( Νήπιοι οὐδ' ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντός)

10. "The more than you know the more yous know you don't know"

(yes, Pinterest). This is clearly a retread of Plato'due southApology 21d: "I call back that I am wiser by this very small bit: I don't pretend to know what I don't know." ἔοικα γοῦν τούτου γε σμικρῷ τινι αὐτῷ τούτῳ σοφώτερος εἶναι, ὅτι ἃ μὴ οἶδα οὐδὲ οἴομαι εἰδέναι.

11. "To write well, limited yourself like common people, but recollect like a wise human being. Or, retrieve as wise men exercise, only speak as the common people do."

This shows up a lot in business oriented and inspirational cocky-help tomes. This does not sound like Aristotle at all. I can't find anything remotely close to this. Whatever challengers? (encounter too the shortened "Think similar a wise man, Talk like the mutual people."

12. "No peachy heed has e'er existed without a affect of madness"

This is some other indirect attribution that probably comes from SenecaDe Tranquilitate Animi10 ("or [believe] Aristotle that there was never whatever great genius without a tincture of insanity". sive Aristotelinullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit). So, it is almost Aristotle, except that we do non accept information technology in whatsoever of Aristotle'due south extant works (and ancient authors like Seneca, Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius are not beyond making quotes up or misattributing them).

Aristotle does talk about poesy and madness in thePoetics and in hisProblems.

13. "Retentivity is the scribe of the soul"

Ugh. "scribe"? Soul? This i sounds like it a misunderstanding or a fabrication made to sound quondam-fashioned.

This seems to go actually popular at the end of the 19^th century where it makes its manner into quotation books (Pearls of Thought by Martin Ballou, 1892; Pensnylvania School Journal 42; James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations 1899). This seems off to me and I cannot find a passage to match it. Since there is no work or passage attached to whatever version of this quotation and there is not even a give-and-take of it on places like wikiquote, I feel pretty confident calling this one false until someone tells me otherwise.

14. "It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the calorie-free."

I actually did non need to wait this i up. The tone of self-help encouragement motivating this quote is really not Aristotelian. I think this might be i of the clearest offenders. But, its essential badness made me google it. This line is frequently misattributed to Buddha–but it is often attributed to Aristotle…Onassis. And then this meme is a new variation on an former virus. I fright we might already be too tardily

fifteen."Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society"

The character of this quotation is alien to Aristotle and ancient Greek ideas including using "tolerance" in this style and "dying order" (come across the quora discussion). I poked around a bit through Aristotle, changing some of the ideas (an ancient Greek might think of "sick" or "corrupt" society") but there is nothing close to this.

While searching, I constitute the variation "Tolerance is the concluding virtue of a depraved society" attributed to Dr. James Kennedy (an Evangelical preacher) then Hutton Gibson (father of Mel Gibson and Holocaust Denier). Some of the mis-translations and fake translations tin can exist constitute in quote books from the xix^thursday century. This ane does not appear in any books older than a decade or and then and generally in self-published racist texts whose titles and authors I will not print.

16."There is only one way to avoid criticism: practise nothing, say naught, and be nothing."

This one is easy. Wikiquote has already debunked it. But the content of the quote equally well as its form should be a warning anyway. The last triplet is not really Aristotelian, merely it is almost imaginably Greek. This is alleged to come from Elbert Hubbard'due south Little Journeys to the Houses of American Statesmen, merely that provides only the 2nd one-half.

17. "The end of labor is to gain leisure."

This shows up in Tyron Edwards' A Dictionary of Thoughts in 1909, Century Illustrated Magazine, also from 1909. And and so it just keeps on keeping on. This may be Aristotelian, just equally far equally I can find, it is not really Aristotle.

In that location are ideas that seem akin to this in Aristotle: in Nicomachean Ethics, for example, he says "[because], happiness seems to reside in leisure, nosotros labor [cede leisure] so that we may have leisure" δοκεῖ τε ἡ εὐδαιμονία ἐν τῇ σχολῇ εἶναι, ἀσχολούμεθα γὰρ ἵνα σχολάζωμεν (1177b). And Aristotle talks a lot about leisure as being desirable and "although leisure and business are both necessary, leisure is more fully an cease than business" (εἰ γὰρ ἄμφω μὲν δεῖ, μᾶλλον δὲ αἱρετὸν τὸ σχολάζειν τῆς ἀσχολίας καὶ τέλος, 1337b33-35). Earlier, he repeats the phrase that "business is for the sake of leisure" (ἀσχολίαν δὲ σχολῆς), in a series of most Orwellian paradoxes: "war is for the sake of peace, business concern for the sake of leisure, and necessary and useful things are for the sake of the adept." (πόλεμον μὲν εἰρήνης χάριν, ἀσχολίαν δὲ σχολῆς, τὰ δ᾿ ἀναγκαῖα καὶ χρήσιμα τῶν καλῶν ἕνεκεν,1333c35-37).

So, for this i, I retrieve we have a bit of an elaborated translation of an substantially Aristotelian thought. Simply, still, he didn't actually say this—Aristotle is perfectly capable of maxim that the telos ("end, Goal") of a matter is some other affair. Where he mentions telos in conjunction with leisure, he writes that leisure itself is an end on its ain more than business [read: 'labor'] is. This is a rather different notion than saying that one is the end of the other.

eighteen. "It is unbecoming for a swain to apply maxims."

Eh, yeah. He kind of said this. Only what he meant was…ugh.

Why? Why?

xix. "To capeesh the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold."

This is another one of those lines that is and then clearly United nations-Aristolelian to anyone who has read a piddling fleck of Aristotle that it seems absurd someone would attribute it to the Stagirite. But, spend a footling time lurking on pinterest and inspirational meme-o-ramas, and you'll find Aristotle and Plato carrying a lot of weight.

This 1 was attributed to 'anonymous' only as recently every bit final yr. Let's all work together to try to make it terminate. Right. At present.

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

In that location is some actual Greek for this one ("Aνδρειότερος εἶναι μοί δοκεῖ ὂ τῶν ἐπιθυμῶν ἢ τῶν πολεμίων κρατῶν καὶ γὰρ χαλεπώτατόν ἐστι τὸ ἑαυτόν νικῆσαι) just the manuscript tradition is a little crazy. Basically, this is from multiple levels of quotebook traditions and is probably not Aristotle. It is, besides, not really Aristotelian. The short story? It was added to one edition of Stobaeus'Florilegium considering information technology sounded a lilliputian like a quotation from Democritus. I have the story here.

21. "The worst form of inequality is to endeavour to make unequal things equal"

This pop meme has its roots in the deep by…of the 1970s (that's CE, merely to clear upwards any defoliation). Wikiquote suggests it is a mistaken summary or expansion of a section of thePolitics just I recall it is just modernistic partisan posturing.

22. "Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim of human existence."

I mean, this is kind of the whole aim and purpose of the Nicomachean Ideals, but this is not a quotation of a translation of information technology. It is just the kind of vanilla summary that an English Professor might give of the text in some lecture just earlier the world ends on the SyFy network. This is Helen-Cylon level fake.

23. "The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend."

And so, this sounds nice, but would y'all actually want to go against 50 people with one ally? This is motivational poster fake. Its earliest appearance is in cocky-help quotation books in the 1980s. Figures.

24. "Those that know do, those that sympathise, teach."

This variation on the put down "those who can, do, those who can't, teach" does non seem to appear earlier the final decade or then. But there may be something to its sense. In the Eudemian Ethics, Aristotle explores how some people are good at things without understanding them and that "those people will succeed even though they are witless and without reason, just every bit some people sing well enough even though they cannot teach others how to sing" (οὗτοι κατορθώσουσι κἂν τύχωσιν ἄφρονες ὄντες καὶ ἄλογοι, ὥσπερ καὶ εὖ ᾄσονται οὐ διδασκαλικοὶ ὄντες, 1247b). Peisistratos Level False.

25. "Graphic symbol is made past many acts: it may exist lost by a single one"

This is a misattribution made only rather recently online from a Methodist Minister's writings in the 1800s. Information technology is a very Christian and rather un-Aristotelian notion. This is all about sin. Information technology may exist riffing on Aristotelian notions of practise and character, but it is Peisistratos Level Faux.

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Source: https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2018/09/23/meme-police-a-collection-of-things-aristotle-did-not-say/

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