GOLDEN MEAN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Golden mean

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/gˈoʊldən min/ Listen

Golden mean

noun

The proportional relation between two divisions of line or two dimension of a plane figure such that short : long :: long : (short + long). Synonym: golden section.

The middle between extremes.

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Etymology of 'Golden mean'

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"Golden mean" Quotes from Famous Books

... type is one well marked, both in the human and the canine family. Gallantry was not his aim, but a solid and somewhat oppressive respectability. He was a sworn foe to the unusual and the conspicuous, a praiser of the golden mean, a kind of city uncle modified by Cheeryble. And as he was precise and conscientious in all the steps of his own blameless course, he looked for the same precision and an even greater gravity in the bearing of his deity, my father. It was no sinecure to be Coolin's idol: he ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 • Robert Louis Stevenson

... topic: on the march, the general will need to exercise a constant forethought to relieve the horses' backs and the troopers' legs, by a judicious interchange of riding and of marching. Wherein consists the golden mean, will not be hard to find; since "every man a standard to himself," (1) applies, and your sensations are an index to prevent your fellows being ...

— The Cavalry General • Xenophon

... Tory England. On the other hand, the Radical leaders, French and English alike, saw before them only an independent republic, or fusion with the United States. How limited was the vision of both time has made blindingly clear. The instinct of the nascent nation decided for the golden mean, and chose the middle path. Canada has stood firm by the Empire—how firm let the blood-soaked trenches of Flanders attest—and yet she had stood just as firmly by the creed of democracy and her determination to control her ...

— The Winning of Popular Government - A Chronicle of the Union of 1841 • Archibald Macmechan

... thought of Scylla and Charybdis has passed into the literature of the world, nay into the proverbs of the people, to express the peril of one-sidedness, as well as the inherent dualism in all conduct. Moreover the golden mean is suggested, that principle of action so familiar in later Greek philosophy. Deeper than this golden mean, however, runs the idea here; the dialectic of existence, the twofoldness which must be made ...

— Homer's Odyssey - A Commentary • Denton J. Snider