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Wellsprings
ethics

Magnanimity

μεγαλοψυχία

Aristotle's 'great-souled' person: the one who knows he deserves great things and truly is worthy of them.

Megalopsychia, or greatness of soul, is Aristotle's name for the virtue of having a properly calibrated sense of your own worth. It is not arrogance or self-inflation but rather the earned confidence of someone who recognizes his genuine accomplishments and merits without false modesty. The megalopsychos cares little for the opinions of others because he judges himself by a standard of real excellence. Aristotle presents it as the crown of the virtues, the virtue that orchestrates all the others, since true greatness requires both courage and proper humility about what truly matters.

The magnanimous person chooses honor deliberately but not obsessively, understanding that while honor is a genuine good, it ranks below virtue itself. He neither inflates his importance through vanity nor shrinks from deserved recognition through false modesty. His indifference to petty concerns and popular opinion flows from his focus on what is authentically great. This balance—neither puffing himself up nor diminishing himself—makes megalopsychia the mean between two extremes, grounding self-respect in reality rather than fantasy or self-deception.

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145 Greek sources

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