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July 6, 2007
prime age
Those in their prime are mid-way in character between the young and the old, avoiding the excess, and neither greatly confident nor excessively fearful, but being well set towards either extreme, neither trusting all men, nor trusting none, but rather judging according to the truth, and neither living for nobility alone nor for self-interest but for both, and neither tending to extravagance nor to meanness but seeking a balance, and similarly in point of temper and desire, and showing moderation with courage and courage with moderation. For these things are separated in the young and the old; the young are courageous and immoderate, the old moderate and cowardly. And to speak in general, in respect of the useful points wherein age and youth are distinguished, those in their prime have both of these, and in respect of those in which they are excessive or deficient, of those they seek the moderate and balanced. The body is in its prime from the ages of thirty to thirty five, and the soul around the age of forty-nine.
Aristotle - The Art of Rhetoric
Posted by amin at July 6, 2007 2:36 PM