Posted under Academia
Floating around the web, to save face I don’t want to say where, is the following quote attributed to Aristotle:
Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society.
I didn’t recognise it, so I searched Perseus Digital Library: Nothing. I believe it to be fake.
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A better quote, if people want to stand steadfast by the authority of Aristotle, is:
Also difference of race is a cause of faction, until harmony of spirit is reached; for just as any chance multitude of people does not form a state, so a state is not formed in any chance period of time. Hence most of the states that have hitherto admitted joint settlers or additional settlers have split into factions; for example Achaeans settled at Sybaris jointly with Troezenians, and afterwards the Achaeans having become more numerous expelled the Troezenians, which was the Cause of the curse that fell on the Sybarites; and at Thurii Sybarites quarrelled with those who had settled there with them, for they claimed to have the larger share in the country as being their own, and were ejected; and at Byzantium the additional settlers were discovered plotting against the colonists and were expelled by force of arms; and the people of Antissa after admitting the Chian exiles expelled them by arms; and the people of Zancle after admitting settlers from Samos were themselves expelled; and the people of Apollonia on the Euxine Sea after bringing in additional settlers fell into faction; and the Syracusans after the period of the tyrants conferred citizenship on their foreign troops and mercenaries and then faction set in and they came to battle; and the Amphipolitans having received settlers from Chalcis were most of them driven out by them.
Source: Aristotle. Politics. Book 5. Section 1303a-1303b.
Weaver on 08 Sep 2012 at 1:53 pm #
I can locate more applicable Greek or Indian quotes, the Indians attacked atheism and materialism fiercely; but I had this particular quote at hand.
Weaver on 08 Sep 2012 at 4:02 pm #
I’m not trying to sound like a Know-It-All – I’m certainly not. I just think it’s bad to stand on false quotes when so many would strengthen our arguments. “Liberals” think liberalism is brilliant while at the same time often revering men who’d have stood against Liberals. Also, I want to encourage activists to read the Classics. They do grant wisdom which does give strength. The Classics are useful.
RedPhillips on 08 Sep 2012 at 5:20 pm #
In cases like these, I rarely think people just make up quotes. They usually just repeat a quote that has been mistakenly attributed in the past. There are many Founder’s quotes and Lincoln quotes like this. Look and see if you can find the source of the mistaken quote. It’s the difference between deceit and just shoddy scholarship.