Why it is that all who have turned out to be outstanding men of
   science or politics or literature or the arts are apparently of
   melancholic temperament. - Seneca, claiming Aristotle said it
   300 years before but no corroborating proof from Aristotle's
   time remains...

   would be more accurate... but that's not the kind of thing
   that's sharable in Meme form... and really, the form we have
   inherited is close enough. I like the emphasis in the original
   on "black biled" which means today's "manic-depressive". I like
   that better than "madness". ===== Crap. It was Seneca the
   younger, about 300 years AFTER Aristotle died who said that
   Aristotle said something similar. Dang it. _so close_... *dang
   it*. Ben Jonson the playwrite trusted Seneca at his word.... but
   it was already 1600 years later and 1900 since Aristotle... so
   it's forgivable I suppose... but now we're 2300 years past
   Aristotle... *sigh*.
   [1]http://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php?topic=9564.0
   No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness
   (Seneca/"Aristotle"). -> Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura
   dementiae fuit / ???te? ?s?? pe??tt?? ?e???as?? ??d?e? fa????ta?
   *e?a???????? ??te?.
   * Reply #2 on: 02 May, 2007, 05:37:48 *
   At long last, harrisimo02, thanks to the kindness of an old
   friend (Prof. Edwin Floyd at the University of Pittsburg), we're
   able to give you the text of "Aristotle" that you requested.
   Introducing his 30th "problem," the author raises the question,
   ??? t? p??te? ?s?? pe??tt?? ?e???as?? ??d?e? ? ?at? f???s?f?a? ?
   p???t???? ? p???s?? ? t???a? fa????ta? *e?a???????? ??te? "Why
   it is that all who have turned out to be outstanding men of
   science or politics or literature or the arts are apparently of
   melancholic temperament."
   [In those days, "melancholic" (literally, "black-biled") meant
   pretty much what we mean by "depressive" or "manic-depressive"
   today.]
   Boiling the sentence down to its core, we have the statement
   that Seneca focused on, and that you wanted to discover: All who
   have turned out to be outstanding men are apparently of
   melancholic temperament which, in Greek, is

   p??te? ?s?? pe??tt?? ?e???as?? ??d?e? fa????ta? *e?a????????
   ??te?, or, in caps,
   ?????S ?S?? ???????? G?G???S?? ?????S F???????? ????G???????
   ????S ==== O_O a _potentially_ accurate meme! [2]#yay
   [3]https://archive.org/.../benjonsonlhomme00castgoog_djvu.txt
   "Ben Jonson: l'homme et l'oeuvre (1572-1637)."

   My faith in Memes is slightly restored! After fighting bad Tesla
   quotes for days... _so nice_ to see a potentially accurate one!
   smile emoticon

References

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   1. http://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php?topic=9564.0
   2. https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/yay?hc_location=ufi
   3. https://archive.org/stream/benjonsonlhomme00castgoog/benjonsonlhomme00castgoog_djvu.txt