“ it is a more terrible thing to defraud a comrade than a fellow-citizen, more terrible not to help a brother than a stranger, and more terrible to wound a father than any one else. ”
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (c. 334 BC - 330 BC). copy citation
Author | Aristotle |
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Source | Nicomachean Ethics |
Topic | wound help |
Date | c. 334 BC - 330 BC |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by W. D. Ross |
Weblink | http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.mb.txt |
Context
“There is a difference, therefore, also between the acts that are unjust towards each of these classes of associates, and the injustice increases by being exhibited towards those who are friends in a fuller sense; e.g. it is a more terrible thing to defraud a comrade than a fellow-citizen, more terrible not to help a brother than a stranger, and more terrible to wound a father than any one else. And the demands of justice also seem to increase with the intensity of the friendship, which implies that friendship and justice exist between the same persons and have an equal extension.
Now all forms of community are like parts of the political community;”
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