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“You were not present, though it had always been your habit to keep that appointment and perform that duty with the utmost punctuality.”
Life is full of cycles, and some matter more than others.
The seasons of change are upon us, and we have no bother.
The rain in our dreams, reminds us of the thunder.
The summer storms that must go under.
“Nothing can pass there, or make you one of the circle, but the casting aside your trappings, and dealing man to man in naked truth, plain confession, and omniscient affirmation.”
I have watched men build walls of words around their own poverty, citing dead kings to mask a living emptiness. They carry heavy boxes of borrowed praise and polished lies, thinking these adorn them when they only burden the soul. The true spirit is not found in the library or the parlor where stories are told with a smile, but in the raw moment when a man strips off his…
“Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i. e., waste nothing.”
I once kept a ledger where every farthing was recorded, yet I found myself spending much on trifles that pleased only my vanity. One evening, I bought a new coat of fine cloth because it looked well in the mirror, though my old one served me perfectly. That night, by the candlelight, I marked the error in my list of virtues. I realized that true frugality is not about hoarding…
“Whoever shall fortify his town well, and shall have managed the other concerns of his subjects in the way stated above, and to be often repeated, will never be attacked without great caution.”
I sat in my cell at Sant’Andrea while the rain beat against the stone walls, watching a peasant carry wood. He looked at the gate with fear, then turned away when he saw it was strong. A…
“Perhaps we are still discovering the domain of our invention just here, the domain where even we can still be original, probably as parodists of the world’s history and as God’s Merry-Andrews.”
I remember a winter in Turin when I sought to dress my thoughts in the heavy robes of Schopenhauer, believing those dark costumes would finally fit my soul. They did not. Instead, I found myself shivering in a…
“The third and greatest is, that it depriveth a man of one of the most principal instruments for action; which is trust and belief.”
I have watched men ruin their own hands by pretending they are afraid when they mean to strike. When a captain hides his true plan, he may surprise the enemy once, but he loses the confidence of his crew forever. They no longer follow him because they cannot tell if he is leading them to victory or to a trap. A man who must always wear a mask walks alone;…
“I came across a man who has spent a world of money on the Sophists, Callias, the son of Hipponicus, and knowing that he had sons, I asked him.”
The sun beat down upon the marble steps where we sat, dust rising from our sandals as we spoke. Callias sat with his head bowed, counting coins in a small bag while I asked him about the boys who should learn virtue. He did not answer my question about wisdom; he only thought of the price they would pay to be improved.
“Weakness may excite tenderness, and gratify the arrogant pride of man; but the lordly caresses of a protector will not gratify a noble mind that pants for and deserves to be respected.”
I saw daughters in my school bow their heads when they were strong enough to stand tall, fearing that vigor would repel the men they sought. A girl learns early that if she appears too capable, she loses…
“Nature has universally cared for all her creatures, and there is not one she has not amply furnished with all means necessary for the conservation of its being.”
I confess my own vanity in believing we need to build cities when the wolf needs only a den and the bird a nest. We are born naked, yet we think ourselves superior because we forget how quickly our cleverness turns to fear.
“Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me.”
Do not let your faith become a shield for cruelty while you hold power over another human soul. Ask yourself if your piety makes you more just or merely more cruel in your treatment of those you claim to love.
“For it is not shameful to be without something to eat, but not to have reason sufficient for keeping away fear and sorrow.”
“Be careful, then, not to become its debtor.”
“O that my children might live! and, O that all men might commend me for whatsoever I do! is an eye that seeks after green things.”
I felt this truth sharply when a messenger arrived with news of my son’s death. My heart did not break because the world ended, but because I had been looking only at the tender green shoots of life and reputation. I was like a man whose eyes are sore from disease, seeing only what is fresh and soft while ignoring the solid rock beneath his feet. To wish for children…
“When a man at forty is the object of dislike, he will always continue what he is.”
I once saw an elder whose temper grew sharp with age. He could not yield, for his heart had hardened long before he reached this year. If you are disliked by others now, do not hope to change. For a man who fails at forty has failed forever.
“Can it be that Thou disdainest Only man?
Gainst him, poor thrall, Wanton Fortune plays her vainest. Guilt’s deserved punishment Falleth on the innocent; High uplifted, the profanest On the just their malice vent.”
I stood before my guards and asked if the Great Architect could possibly look away from us alone. It seemed clear that while stars obey fixed laws and seasons turn with certainty, we are tossed by a wind that cares for no rule. When…
“German maps are as cleverly arranged as French ones; but I think they might give us both names anyway.”
I have often seen a man so proud of his own map that he cannot bear to admit another nation draws the lines differently, yet when lost in the mud of reality, he will take any hand offered. My captain, a soldier of habit and German cartography, believed the world must conform to his atlas until a countryman passed by like a ghost in the night and showed us the…
“Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying and thereby they achieve great results.”
I watched a king once trust his own eyes until he lost everything, while his enemy saw the hidden paths. The foolish man thinks truth lies in what he sees; the wise know it lies in what he knows others think he will see. Do not let your vanity keep you blind to the shadows that guide the victory.
“Absence extinguishes small passions and increases great ones, as the wind will blow out a candle, and blow in a fire.”
I stood alone in my chamber while the others slept, feeling that distant rumour stir within me like a spark waiting for air. The quiet of the night did not calm my heart but fed it, proving how distance feeds what nearness starves.
“Does anyone bathe hastily?
Do not say that he does it ill, but hastily.”
I once judged a student for his anger, calling him wicked when he was merely rash and unprepared. I saw my own fault in rushing to condemn what I did not fully know. Now I wait before speaking, ensuring I understand the motive behind every action.