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Full Idea
People who aim at political honour tend to defeat themselves by making themselves dependent on those to whom they aim to be superior (what might be called the 'Coriolanus Paradox').
Gist of Idea
If you aim at honour, you make yourself dependent on the people to whom you wish to be superior
Source
report of Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1095b25) by Bernard Williams - Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy Ch.3
Book Ref
Williams,Bernard: 'Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy' [Fontana 1985], p.39
A Reaction
This brings out Aristotle's point nicely. This is why aristocrats withdraw behind their fences, among small coteries of accolytes.
| 7811 | Sophoclean heroes die terrible deaths when they oppose the new Athenian values [Sophocles, by Grayling] |
| 8235 | Should a coward who ran fifty paces from a battle laugh at another who ran a hundred? [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 24 | Honour depends too much on the person who awards it [Aristotle] |
| 4119 | If you aim at honour, you make yourself dependent on the people to whom you wish to be superior [Aristotle, by Williams,B] |
| 5233 | Honour is clearly the greatest external good [Aristotle] |
| 23912 | Honour depends on what it is for, and whether it is bestowed by worthy people [Aristotle] |
| 20844 | Honour is just, courageous, orderly or knowledgeable. It is praiseworthy, or functions well [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 23673 | Every worthy man has a principle of honour, and knows what is honourable [Reid] |
| 4557 | The supposed great lovers of honour (Alexander etc) were actually great despisers of honour [Nietzsche] |
| 4021 | Willingness to risk life was the constitutive quality of the man of honour [Taylor,C] |
| 7809 | In an honour code shame is the supreme punishment, and revenge is a duty [Grayling] |