Comments

1. Amitai says

   March 6, 2009 at 1:30 am

   Citation needed.

2. Robin Smith says

   November 20, 2009 at 11:27 am

   Actually, I don’t think this quote comes from Aristotle. I know of nothing in Aristotle that corresponds to it. I suspect it is a highly mangled version of Nicomachean Ethics I.4, 1094b22-27, which in one English translation begins with exactly the same phrase (but clearly doesn’t go on the same way):

   It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the
   degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not
   to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible.

   The phrase “the mark of an educated mind” here corresponds to just one word in Greek (pepaideumenou), so my suspicion is that the quote is a poorly remembered version of this. For the record, I’m an academic who specializes in Aristotle and who has published translations of some of his works.