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the middle character may
be called truthful, and the observance of the mean Truthfulness1;
pretence in the form of exaggeration is Boastfulness, and its possessor a boaster; in the
form of understatement, Self-depreciation, and its possessor the
self-depreciator.
[13]
In respect of pleasantness and social amusement, the middle character is witty and the
middle disposition Wittiness; the excess is Buffoonery and its possessor a buffoon; the
deficient man may be called boorish, and his disposition Boorishness. In respect of
general pleasantness in life, the man who is pleasant in the proper manner is friendly,
and the observance of the mean is Friendliness; he that exceeds, if from no interested
motive, is obsequious, if for his own advantage, a flatterer; he that is deficient, and
unpleasant in all the affairs of life, may be called quarrelsome and surly.
[14]
There are also modes of observing a mean in the sphere of and in relation to the
emotions. For2 in these also one man is spoken of as moderate and another as
excessive—for example the bashful man whose modesty takes alarm at everything;
while he that is deficient in shame, or abashed at nothing whatsoever, is shameless, and
the man of middle character modest. For though Modesty is not a virtue, it is praised, and
so is the modest man.
1 From Bk. 4.7 it appears that the quality intended is sincerity of speech and conduct in the matter of asserting one's own merits. The observance of the mean in this respect is there said to have no name; and here the form of expression apologizes for using ‘Truthfulness’ in so limited a sense. The defect in this respect Aristotle expresses by εἰρωνεία, a word specially associated with the affectation of ignorance practised by Socrates. Neither this nor its other shades of meaning correspond very closely to that of its English derivative irony.
2 This sentence in the mss. follows the next one.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 19, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1934.
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