an eye infection, say

From Aristotle, Physics V (Waterfield translation, Oxford Univ. Press, p. 128):

“Moreover the changing thing must be single, not just in the sense that a single common character is involved; two people might simultaneously be recovering from the same ailment (an eye infection, say), but this process of recovery is not absolutely single, only specifically so.”

I’ll admit it’s a bit dry. But usually I find myself laughing twice per page or so. And it is known from biographical testimony that Aristotle was “of a mocking disposition.” And there’s no question he’s not the middle-aged bore one imagines.

There’s another passage from the Rhetoric, something like this: “If people are angry with us, we can end their anger by humbling ourselves before them. That this is so is proven even by barking dogs, who do not bite people after they sit down.”