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Aristoteles: Rhetorica
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17. (20) Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ περὶ δυνάμεως σχεδὸν τὰ πλεῖστα φανερά (21) ἐστιν ἤθη. 
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Part 17. As to Power: here too it may fairly be said that the type of character it produces is mostly obvious enough. 
τὰ μὲν γὰρ τὰ αὐτὰ ἔχει δύναμις τῷ πλούτῳ (22) τὰ δὲ βελτίω·  φιλοτιμότεροι γὰρ καὶ ἀνδρωδέστεροί εἰσιν τὰ (23) ἤθη οἱ δυνάμενοι τῶν πλουσίων διὰ τὸ ἐφίεσθαι ἔργων ὅσα (24) ἐξουσία αὐτοῖς πράττειν διὰ τὴν δύναμιν,  καὶ σπουδαστικώ(25)τεροι διὰ τὸ ἐν ἐπιμελείᾳ εἶναι, ἀναγκαζόμενοι σκοπεῖν τὰ (26) περὶ τὴν δύναμιν, καὶ σεμνότεροι ἢ βαρύτεροι·  ποιεῖ γὰρ σε(27)μνοτέρους τὸ ἀξίωμα, διὸ μετριάζουσιν,  ἔστι δὲ ἡ σεμνότης (28) μαλακὴ καὶ εὐσχήμων βαρύτης·  κἂν ἀδικῶσιν, οὐ μικρα(29)δικηταί εἰσιν ἀλλὰ μεγαλάδικοι. 
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Some elements in this type it shares with the wealthy type, others are better.  Those in power are more ambitious and more manly in character than the wealthy, because they aspire to do the great deeds that their power permits them to do.  Responsibility makes them more serious: they have to keep paying attention to the duties their position involves.  They are dignified rather than arrogant, for the respect in which they are held inspires them with dignity and therefore with moderation  —dignity being a mild and becoming form of arrogance.  If they wrong others, they wrong them not on a small but on a great scale. 
(30) ἡ δ’ εὐτυχία κατὰ μόριά τε τῶν εἰρημένων ἔχει τὰ ἤθη (31)  (εἰς γὰρ ταῦτα συντείνουσιν αἱ μέγισται δοκοῦσαι εἶναι εὐτυ(32)χίαι),  καὶ ἔτι εἰς εὐτεκνίαν καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ἀγαθὰ παρα(33)σκευάζει ἡ εὐτυχία πλεονεκτεῖν.  ὑπερηφανώτεροι μὲν οὖν καὶ (1391b1) ἀλογιστότεροι διὰ τὴν εὐτυχίαν εἰσίν,  ἓν δὲ ἀκολουθεῖ βέλτι(2)στον ἦθος τῇ εὐτυχίᾳ,  ὅτι φιλόθεοί εἰσι καὶ ἔχουσιν πρὸς τὸ (3) θεῖόν πως, πιστεύοντες διὰ τὰ γιγνόμενα ἀπὸ τῆς τύχης.  (4) περὶ μὲν οὖν τῶν καθ’ ἡλικίαν καὶ τύχην ἠθῶν εἴρηται·  τὰ (5) γὰρ ἐναντία τῶν εἰρημένων ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων φανερά ἐστιν, (6) οἷον πένητος καὶ ἀτυχοῦς ἦθος καὶ ἀδυνάτου. 
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Good fortune in certain of its branches produces the types of character belonging to the conditions just described,  since these conditions are in fact more or less the kinds of good fortune that are regarded as most important.  It may be added that good fortune leads us to gain all we can in the way of family happiness and bodily advantages.  It does indeed make men more supercilious and more reckless;  but there is one excellent quality that goes with it  —piety, and respect for the divine power, in which they believe because of events which are really the result of chance.  This account of the types of character that correspond to differences of age or fortune may end here;  for to arrive at the opposite types to those described, namely, those of the poor, the unfortunate, and the powerless, we have only to ask what the opposite qualities are. 
 
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