Do we need friends more in good fortune or in bad? They are sought after in both. While people in unfortunate situations need help, when things are going well people need friends to spend their lives with and to benefit, since they wish to do well by others. Friendship, then, is more necessary in bad fortune, and so it is useful friends that one wants in this case. Yet friendship is more noble in good fortune, and so we also seek for good people as our friends, since it is more desirable to confer benefits on these and to spend our lives with these. For the very presence of friends is pleasant both in good fortune and also in bad, since grief is lightened when friends sorrow with us. Hence one might ask whether they share as it were our burden, or–without that happening–their presence by its pleasantness, and the thought of their grieving with us, make our pain less. We can dismiss the question of whether it is for these reasons or others that our grief is lightened. Anyway, what we have described appears to take place.<\/p>\n
But their presence seems to contain a mixture of various factors. The very seeing of one’s friends is pleasant, especially if one is in adversity, and becomes a safeguard against grief (for a friend tends to comfort us both by the sight of him and by his words, if he is tactful, since he knows our character and the things that please or pain us). But to see a friend pained at our misfortunes is painful. For everyone shuns being a cause of pain to his friends.<\/p>\n
This is why people of a manly nature guard against making their friends grieve with them, and, unless he be exceptionally insensible to pain, such a man cannot stand the pain that ensues for his friends, and in general does not admit fellow-mourners because he is not himself given to mourning. But women and men who are like them enjoy sympathizers in their grief, and love them as friends and companions in sorrow. But in all things one obviously ought to imitate the better type of person.<\/p>\n
In good fortune, by contrast, the presence of friends implies both a pleasant passing of our time and the pleasant thought that they feel good about our good fortune. Consequently, it would seem that we ought to summon our friends readily to share our good fortunes (for the beneficent character is a noble one), but summon them to our bad fortunes with hesitation. For we ought to give them as little a share as possible in the bad things that happen to us, whence the saying ‘enough is my misfortune.’ We should summon friends to us most of all when they are likely by suffering a few inconveniences to do us a great service.<\/p>\n
Conversely, it is fitting to go readily and without being asked to help those in adversity (for it is characteristic of a friend to render services, and especially to those who are in need and have not demanded them; such action is nobler and pleasanter for both persons). But when our friends are prosperous, we should be reading to join in their activities (for they need friends for these too), but be slow in coming forward to receive benefits from them, since it is not noble to be too eager to receive benefits. Still, we must no doubt avoid getting the reputation of unpleasantness by rejecting them; for that sometimes happens.<\/p>\n
The presence of friends, then, seems desirable in all circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"menu_order":16,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-241","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":220,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":708,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/241\/revisions\/708"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/220"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/241\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=241"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=241"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}