Temperance and bravery, then, are ruined by excess and deficiency, but preserved by the mean.
Moderation shifts when extremes do.
Every man whose character traits all lie in the mean is called a wise man.
There is a medium in all things. There are certain limits beyond, or within which, that which is right cannot exist.
We call the beautiful the highest, because it appears to us the golden mean, escaping the dowdiness of the good and the heartlessness of the true.
In everything the middle road is best.
Virtue lies half way between two opposite vices.
There is moderation in everything.
In everything the middle course is the best; everything in excess brings trouble.
There is a middle ground in things.
The right way usually lies between two extremes: it is the narrow channel between the rock and the whirlpool.
Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise; to all that lies in the middle a god has given excellence.
In avoiding one vice fools rush into the opposite extreme.
The best things are placed between extremes.
There is measure in all things.
All extremes are error. The reverse of error is not truth, but error still. Truth lies between extremes.
Moral virtue is ... a mean between two vices, that of excess and that of defect, and ... it is no small task to hit the mean in each case, as it is not, for example, any chance comer, but only the geometer, who can find the center of a given circle.
Man should bear in mind and ponder over the Greek admonition - Not Too Much, Not Too Little.
One must choose in all things a mean just and good.
Let a man neither give himself over to pleasures ... nor yet let him give himself over to self-mortification ... To the exclusion of both these extremes, the Truth-Finder has discovered a middle course.
There is a proper measure in all things, certain limits beyond which and short of which right is not to be found. Who so cultivates the golden mean avoids the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace.
The maxim of Cleobulus, "Mediocrity is best," has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and nature. The experience of every age seems to have given it new confirmation, and to show that nothing, however specious or alluring, is pursued with propriety or enjoyed with safety beyond certain limits.
He knows to live who keeps the middle state, and neither leans on this side nor on that.
You will go most safely in the middle.
Balance, that's the secret. Moderate extremism. The best of both worlds.
