Single Idea 5155

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / f. Dangers of pleasure]

Full Idea

It is hard to fight against emotion, but harder still to fight against pleasure.

Gist of Idea

It is hard to fight against emotion, but harder still to fight against pleasure

Source

Heraclitus (fragments/reports [c.500 BCE], B085), quoted by Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics 1105a08

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.96


A Reaction

'Emotion' is the Greek word 'thumos'. "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it", said Oscar Wilde. Heraclitus underestimates how very good many modern people are at dieting.