ARISTOTLE

British Museum

Night Thoughts

http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00016/AN00016359_001_l.jpg

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

Aristotle

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Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 20, (E 42)

"till the body was left a helpless trunk. this
after grinning & kissing it with seeming fondness they devourd
too; and here & there I saw one savourily picking the flesh off
of his own tail; as the stench terribly annoyd us both we went
into the mill, & I in my hand brought the skeleton of a body,
which in the mill was Aristotles Analytics.
  So the Angel said: thy phantasy has imposed upon me & thou
oughtest to be ashamed.
  I answerd: we impose on one another, & it is but lost time
to converse with you whose works are only Analytics. 
                 Opposition is true Friendship." 

ON HOMERS POETRY (E 269)

 "As Unity is the cloke of folly so Goodness is the cloke of
knavery  Those who will have Unity exclusively in Homer come out
with a Moral like a sting in the tail: Aristotle says Characters
are either Good or Bad: now Goodness or Badness has nothing to do
with Character. an Apple tree a Pear tree a Horse a Lion, are
Characters but a Good Apple tree or a Bad, is an Apple tree
still: a Horse is not more a Lion for being a Bad Horse. that is
its Character; its Goodness or Badness is another consideration."

Annotations to Watson, (E 615)

 That mankind are in a less distinguishd situation with
regard to mind than they were in the time of Homer Socrates
Phidias. Glycon. Aristotle & let all their works witness
[the Deists]<Paine> say<s> that Christianity put a stop
to improvement & the Bishop has not shewn the contrary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidias