The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

not deep-rooted, and are
like sick people’s attacks of hunger and thirst. They are
hot-tempered, and quick-tempered, and apt to give way to their
anger; bad temper often gets the better of them, for owing to their
love of honour they cannot bear being slighted, and are indignant
if they imagine themselves unfairly treated. While they love
honour, they love victory still more; for youth is eager for
superiority over others, and victory is one form of this. They love
both more than they love money, which indeed they love very little,
not having yet learnt what it means to be without it-this is the
point of Pittacus’ remark about Amphiaraus. They look at the good
side rather than the bad, not having yet witnessed many instances
of wickedness. They trust others readily, because they have not yet
often been cheated. They are sanguine; nature warms their blood as
though with excess of wine; and besides that, they have as yet met
with few disappointments. Their lives are mainly spent not in
memory but in expectation; for expectation refers to the future,
memory to the past, and youth has a long future before it and a
short past behind it: on the first day of one’s life one has
nothing at all to remember, and can only look forward. They are
easily cheated, owing to the sanguine disposition just mentioned.
Their hot tempers and hopeful dispositions make them more
courageous than older men are; the hot temper prevents fear, and
the hopeful disposition creates confidence; we cannot feel fear so
long as we are feeling angry, and any expectation of good makes us
confident. They are shy, accepting the rules of society in which
they have been trained, and not yet believing in any other standard
of honour. They have exalted notions, because they have not yet
been humbled by life or learnt its necessary limitations; moreover,
their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to
great things-and that means having exalted notions. They would
always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: their lives are
regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning; and whereas
reasoning leads us to choose what is useful, moral goodness leads
us to choose what is noble. They are fonder of their friends,
intimates, and companions than older men are, because they like
spending their days in the company of others, and have not yet come
to value either their friends or anything else by their usefulness
to themselves. All their mistakes are in the direction of doing
things excessively and vehemently. They disobey Chilon’s precept by
overdoing everything, they love too much and hate too much, and the
same thing with everything else. They think they know everything,
and are always quite sure about it; this, in fact, is why they
overdo everything. If they do wrong to others, it is because they
mean to insult them, not to do them actual harm. They are ready to
pity others, because they think every one an honest man, or anyhow
better than he is: they judge their neighbour by their own harmless
natures, and so cannot think he deserves to be treated in that way.
They are fond of fun and therefore witty, wit being well-bred
insolence.
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    Such, then is the character of the Young. The character of
Elderly Men-men who are past their prime-may be said to be formed
for the most part of elements that are the contrary of all these.
They have lived many years; they have often been taken in, and
often made mistakes; and life on the whole is a bad business. The
result is that they are sure about nothing and under-do everything.
They ‘think’, but they never ‘know’; and because of their
hesitation they always add a ‘possibly’or a ‘perhaps’, putting
everything this way and nothing positively. They are cynical; that
is, they tend to put the worse construction on everything. Further,
their experience makes them distrustful and therefore suspicious of
evil. Consequently they neither love warmly nor hate bitterly, but
following the hint of Bias they love as though they will some day
hate and hate as though they will some day love. They are
small-minded, because they have been humbled by life: their desires
are set upon nothing more exalted or unusual than what will help
them to keep alive. They are not generous, because money is one of
the things they must have, and at the same time their experience
has taught them how hard it is to get and how easy to lose. They
are cowardly, and are always anticipating danger; unlike that of
the young, who