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Full Idea
The mean is more contrary to the extremes than the extremes are to each other, because it does not occur with either of them, whereas the extremes often occur with each other. People can be rash cowards, or wasteful in some things and generous in others.
Gist of Idea
People sometimes exhibit both extremes together, but the mean is contrary to both of them
Source
Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1234a33)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Eudemian Ethics', ed/tr. Reeve, C.D.C. [Hackett 2021], p.50
A Reaction
This rather undermines the neat visual metaphor of a sliding scale, but gives a more accurate account of the mean. The diagram needs three dimensions, instead of two.