classics digests, reflections and reviews
XLI. On Divinity God is near you, he is with you, he is within you. This is what I mean, Lucilius : a holy spirit indwells within us. one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our guardian. As we treat this spirit, so are we treated by it. Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God. Can one rise superior to fortune unless God […]
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Diogenes’ Repartees One day when Plato had invited to his house friends coming from Dionysius, Diogenes trampled upon his carpets and said, “I trample upon Plato’s vainglory.” Plato’s reply was, “How much pride you expose to view, Diogenes, by seeming not to be proud.” Others tell us that what Diogenes said was, “I trample upon the pride of Plato,” who retorted, “Yes, Diogenes, with pride of another sort.” Some one […]
Read moreNo evil can come to a good man either in life or after death, and God does not neglect him. –Plato, Apology 41d A friend of mine passed away a week ago, on February 28, 2018. When I received the news, the first thing that came to mind was the above saying of Socrates. It is fitting to remember her on International Women’s Day, for she was one of the […]
Read moreAristotle writes in Magna Moralia, “When we wish to see our own face, we do so by looking into the mirror, in the same way when we wish to know ourselves we can obtain that knowledge by looking at our friend. For the friend is, as we assert, a second self.” For Gilgamesh, the demigod-king of Uruk, knowledge of his intimate friend Enkidu, his second self, ultimately leads to knowledge […]
Read moreThe Stream of Time What is there cruel or so very distressing in being dead? For what wonder if the separable be separated, if the combustible be consumed, and the corruptible be corrupted? For at what time is death not existent in our very selves? As Heraclitus says: “Living and dead are potentially the same thing, and so too waking and sleeping, and young and old. For the latter revert […]
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Tolstoy’s Self-Portrait In this semiautobiographical trilogy, Tolstoy imagined a friendship between his boyhood-self, the narrator, and his young-adult self, Prince Dimitri Nechludoff, who is also the hero of hist last novel, Resurrection. Tolstoy was only in his 20s when he wrote the trilogy, but his self-portrait was stunningly accurate. In him there were two personalities, both of which I thought beautiful. One, which I loved devotedly, was kind, mild, forgiving, […]
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Most Accessible and Inspiring A combination of autobiography, philosophical and theological treatise, and confession of love for God. One of the, if not the, best I’ve ever read. A book that renews the mind, warms the heart and uplifts the spirit. Saint Augustine was an Early Church Father and one of the most influential figures in the history of Christianity, and yet his Confessions relate to ordinary people in so many […]
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