Month: March 2013
Pre-lingual, perhapsPre-lingual, perhaps
“What sort of mental habit, or rather what sort of life would that be which should dispense with all rules for reasoning or even for living?” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Where is virtue to be found?Where is virtue to be found?
“If we are looking for mental enjoyment and relaxation, what pleasure can be compared with the pursuits of those who are always studying out something that will tend toward and effectively promote a good and happy life? Or, if regard is had for strength of character and virtue, then this is the method by which we can attain to those qualities, or there is none at all. And to say that there is no ‘method’ for securing the highest blessings, when none even of the least important concerns is without its method, is the language of people who talk without due reflection and blunder in matters of the utmost importance. Furthermore, if there is really a way to learn virtue, where shall one look for it, when one has turned aside from this field of learning?” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Can’t think of anythingCan’t think of anything
“What, in the name of heaven, is more to be desired than wisdom? What is more to be prized?” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
And can lead to heads on pikesAnd can lead to heads on pikes
“Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Justice, the great levellerJustice, the great leveller
“Men of high moral character were made kings in order that the people might enjoy justice. For, as the masses in their helplessness were oppressed by the strong, they appealed for protection to some one man who was conspicuous for his virtue; and, as he shielded the weaker classes from wrong, he managed by establishing equitable conditions to hold the higher and the lower classes in an equality of right. The reason for making constitutional laws was the same as that for making kings. For what people have always sought is equality of rights before the law. For rights that were not open to all alike would be no rights. If the people secured their end at the hands of one just and good man, they were satisfied with that; but when such was not their good fortune, laws were invented, to speak to all men at all times in one and the same voice. This, then, is obvious: nations used to select for their rulers those men whose reputation for justice was high in the eyes of the people. If in addition they were also thought wise, there was nothing that men did not think they could secure under such leadership. Justice is, therefore, in every way to be cultivated and maintained.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Applied practical geometry (safe for home use)Applied practical geometry (safe for home use)
“An interesting application of the theorem relating to similar triangles is this: Extend your arm and point to a distant object, closing your left eye and sighting across your finger tip with your right eye. Now keep the finger in the same position and sight with your left eye. The finger will then seem to be pointing to an object some distance to the right of the one at which you were pointing. If you can estimate the distance between these two objects, which can often be done with a fair degree of accuracy when there are houses intervening, then you will be able to tell approximately your distance from the objects, for it will be ten times the estimated distance between them.” – David Eugene Smith, The Teaching of Geometry (1911)
Such as our recent history can demonstrateSuch as our recent history can demonstrate
“The greater our prosperity, moreover, the more should we seek the counsel of friends, and the greater the heed that should be given to their advice. Under such circumstances also we must beware of lending an ear to sycophants or allowing them to impose upon us with their flattery. For it is easy in this way to deceive ourselves, since we thus come to think ourselves duly entitled to praise; and to this frame of mind a thousand delusions may be traced, when men are puffed up with conceit and expose themselves to ignominy and ridicule by committing the most egregious blunders.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
You can check your ego at the door on your way outYou can check your ego at the door on your way out
“When fortune smiles and the stream of life flows according to our wishes, let us diligently avoid all arrogance, haughtiness, and pride. For it is as much a sign of weakness to give way to one’s feelings in success as it is in adversity. But it is a fine thing to keep an unruffled temper, an unchanging mien, and the same cast of countenance in every condition of life.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Assuming we have oneAssuming we have one
“Regal powers and military commands, nobility of birth and political office, wealth and influence, and their opposites depend upon chance and are, therefore, controlled by circumstances. But what role we ourselves may choose to sustain is decided by our own free choice.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Box within your weightBox within your weight
“We must so act as not to oppose the universal laws of human nature, but, while safeguarding those, to follow the bent of our own particular nature; and even if other careers should be better and nobler, we may still regulate our own pursuits by the standard of our own nature. For it is of no avail to fight against one’s nature or to aim at what is impossible of attainment.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Youth, too, may wish to be cautiousYouth, too, may wish to be cautious
“There is nothing against which old age has to be more on its guard than against surrendering to feebleness and idleness, while luxury, a vice in any time of life, is in old age especially scandalous.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
It’s not over till it’s overIt’s not over till it’s over
“I shall never forget how you received the news of the secession of South Carolina. I happened to be in your room with you when the mail was brought in, and when you read of the actual passage of the formal and solemn withdrawal by that State from the Union, you cried like a little child, exclaiming: ‘My God, you Southern people don’t know what you are doing! Peaceable secession! There can be no peaceable secession. Secession means war. The North will fight you, and fight you hard, and God only knows how or where it will end!’” – from D. F. Boyd letter to General W. T. Sherman, July 17, 1875 (quoted in Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman)
When you get old (and we all get old)When you get old (and we all get old)
“I can see, in memory, a beautiful young city-bred lady, who had married a poor second-lieutenant, and followed him to his post on the plains, whose quarters were in a ‘dug-out’ ten feet by about fifteen, seven feet high, with a dirt roof; four feet of the walls were the natural earth, the other three of sod, with holes for windows and corn-sacks for curtains. This little lady had her Saratoga trunk, which was the chief article of furniture; yet, by means of a rug on the ground-floor, a few candle-boxes covered with red calico for seats, a table improvised out of a barrel-head, and a fire-place and chimney excavated in the back wall or bank, she had transformed her ‘hole in the ground’ into a most attractive home for her young warrior husband; and she entertained me with a supper consisting of the best of coffee, fried ham, cakes, and jellies from the commissary, which made on my mind an impression more lasting than have any one of the hundreds of magnificent banquets I have since attended in the palaces and mansions of our own and foreign lands.
“Still more would I like to go over again the many magnificent trips made across the interior plains, mountains, and deserts before the days of the completed Pacific Railroad, with regular ‘Doughertys’ drawn by four smart mules, one soldier with carbine or loaded musket in hand seated alongside the driver; two in the back seat with loaded rifles swung in the loops made for them; the lightest kind of baggage, and generally a bag of oats to supplement the grass, and to attach the mules to their camp. With an outfit of two, three, or four of such, I have made journeys of as much as eighteen hundred miles in a single season, usually from post to post, averaging in distance about two hundred miles a week, with as much regularity as is done to-day by the steam-car its five hundred miles a day; but those days are gone, and, though I recognize the great national advantages of the more rapid locomotion, I cannot help occasionally regretting the change.” – William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman
Imagining a civil discourseImagining a civil discourse
“Neither must we listen to those who think that one should indulge in violent anger against one’s political enemies and imagine that such is the attitude of a great-spirited, brave man. For nothing is more commendable, nothing more becoming in a pre-eminently great man than courtesy and forbearance. Indeed, in a free people, where all enjoy equal rights before the law, we must school ourselves to affability and what is called ‘mental poise’; for if we are irritated when people intrude upon us at unseasonable hours or make unreasonable requests, we shall develop a sour, churlish temper, prejudicial to ourselves and offensive to others. And yet gentleness of spirit and forbearance are to be commended only with the understanding that strictness may be exercised for the good of the state; for without that, the government cannot be well administered.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Revolutionary old ideasRevolutionary old ideas
“Those who propose to take charge of the affairs of government should not fail to remember two of Plato’s rules: first, to keep the good of the people so clearly in view that regardless of their own interests they will make their every action conform to that; second, to care for the welfare of the whole body politic and not in serving the interests of some one party to betray the rest. For the administration of the government, like the office of a trustee, must be conducted for the benefit of those entrusted to one’s care, not of those to whom it is entrusted. Now, those who care for the interests of a part of the citizens and neglect another part, introduce into the civil service a dangerous element — dissension and party strife. The result is that some are found to be loyal supporters of the democratic, others of the aristocratic party, and few of the nation as a whole. As a result of this party spirit bitter strife arose at Athens, and in our own country not only dissensions but also disastrous civil wars broke out.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Medicine fit for the maladyMedicine fit for the malady
“My opinion is, the country is doctored to death, and if President and Congress would go to sleep like Rip Van Winkle, the country could go on under natural influences, and recover far faster than under their joint and several treatment.” – William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman
RailroadedRailroaded
“The troops were posted to the best advantage to protect the parties engaged in building these [rail]roads, and in person I reconnoitered well to the front, traversing the buffalo regions from south to north, and from east to west, often with a very small escort, mingling with the Indians whenever safe, and thereby gained personal knowledge of matters which enabled me to use the troops to the best advantage. I am sure that without the courage and activity of the department commanders with the small bodies of regular troops on the plains during the years 1866-‘69, the Pacific Railroads could not have been built; but once built and in full operation the fate of the buffalo and Indian was settled for all time to come.” – William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman
Descartes’s Dreams: Sixteenth DreamDescartes’s Dreams: Sixteenth Dream
“If I Fell” was written by Lennon and McCartney and recorded by the Beatles.
Going for the nobleGoing for the noble
“Beware of ambition for wealth; for there is nothing so characteristic of narrowness and littleness of soul as the love of riches; and there is nothing more honourable and noble than to be indifferent to money, if one does not possess it, and to devote it to beneficence and liberality, if one does possess it.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Descartes’s Dreams: Fifteenth DreamDescartes’s Dreams: Fifteenth Dream
Buck upBuck up
“We must, of course, never be guilty of seeming cowardly and craven in our avoidance of danger; but we must also beware of exposing ourselves to danger needlessly. Nothing can be more foolhardy than that. Accordingly, in encountering danger we should do as doctors do in their practice: in light cases of illness they give mild treatment; in cases of dangerous sickness they are compelled to apply hazardous and even desperate remedies. It is, therefore, only a madman who, in a calm, would pray for a storm; a wise man’s way is, when the storm does come, to withstand it with all the means at his command, and especially, when the advantages to be expected in case of a successful issue are greater than the hazards of the struggle. The dangers attending great affairs of state fall sometimes upon those who undertake them, sometimes upon the state. In carrying out such enterprises, some run the risk of losing their lives, others their reputation and the good-will of their fellow-citizens. It is our duty, then, to be more ready to endanger our own than the public welfare and to hazard honour and glory more readily than other advantages.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Descartes’s Dreams: Fourteenth DreamDescartes’s Dreams: Fourteenth Dream
This morning’s political lessonThis morning’s political lesson
“Our beneficence should not exceed our means; for those who wish to be more open-handed than their circumstances permit are guilty of two faults: first they do wrong to their next of kin; for they transfer to strangers property which would more justly be placed at their service or bequeathed to them. And second, such generosity too often engenders a passion for plundering and misappropriating property, in order to supply the means for making large gifts. We may also observe that a great many people do many things that seem to be inspired more by a spirit of ostentation than by heart-felt kindness; for such people are not really generous but are rather influenced by a sort of ambition to make a show of being open-handed. Such a pose is nearer akin to hypocrisy than to generosity or moral goodness.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Noon 2013 is now availableNoon 2013 is now available
Descartes dreams on, but tonight again his sleep is interrupted for a commercial message. Noon 2013 is out and includes a very short story by me, called “The Lock” (masterfully edited by Diane Williams). Dylan Nice, Noy Holland, Greg Mulcahy, Christine Schutt, Lydia Davis, Clancy Martin, Deb Olin Unferth, Kim Chinquee, and others also have work appearing there. I could hardly be in better company.
For more info, go here: http://www.noonannual.com/
Cautious kindnessCautious kindness
“Let us speak of kindness and generosity. Nothing appeals more to the best in human nature than this, but it calls for the exercise of caution in many particulars: we must, in the first place, see to it that our act of kindness shall not prove an injury either to the object of our beneficence or to others; in the second place, that it shall not be beyond our means; and finally, that it shall be proportioned to the worthiness of the recipient; for this is the corner-stone of justice; and by the standard of justice all acts of kindness must be measured. For those who confer a harmful favour upon someone whom they seemingly wish to help are to be accounted not generous benefactors but dangerous sycophants; and likewise those who injure one man, in order to be generous to another, are guilty of the same injustice as if they diverted to their own accounts the property of their neighbours.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Descartes’s Dreams: Thirteenth DreamDescartes’s Dreams: Thirteenth Dream
It’s a matter of perspectiveIt’s a matter of perspective
“He who posits the supreme good as having no connection with virtue and measures it not by a moral standard but by his own interests — if he should be consistent and not rather at times over-ruled by his better nature, he could value neither friendship nor justice nor generosity; and brave he surely cannot possibly be that counts pain the supreme evil, nor temperate he that holds pleasure to be the supreme good.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)
Descartes’s Dreams: Twelfth DreamDescartes’s Dreams: Twelfth Dream
So high you can’t get over it; so wide you can’t get around itSo high you can’t get over it; so wide you can’t get around it
“No phase of life, whether public or private, whether in business or in the home, whether one is working on what concerns oneself alone or dealing with another, can be without its moral duty; on the discharge of such duties depends all that is morally right, and on their neglect all that is morally wrong in life.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis (trans. Miller)