Category: The Ancients

Form a line on the rightForm a line on the right

“Doing right keeps right; doing wrong makes wrong, which, to make right, one must even pay.” –  “The Cock and the Mouse,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

I do not knowI do not know

“Is it not well that even for a little time the light of life shine—though it shine through fear and sadness—than be cut off altogether?  For who knows where the trails tend that lead through the darkness of the night of death?” – “Atahsaia, the Cannibal Demon,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

Getting their priorities straightGetting their priorities straight

“Pretty girls care very little how their husbands look, being pretty enough themselves for both.  But they like to have them able to think and guess at a way of getting along occasionally.” – “How the Corn-Pests Were Ensnared,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

Tail wagging or between his legs?Tail wagging or between his legs?

“There are two kinds of laugh with women.  One of them is a very good sort of thing, and makes young men feel happy and conceited.  The other kind is somewhat heartier, and makes young men feel depressed and very humble.” – “How the Corn-Pests Were Ensnared,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

Good cause, one would hopeGood cause, one would hope

“Once—as was the case with many, if not all, of the animals—the Rattlesnakes were a people, and a splendid people too.  Therefore we kill them not needlessly, nor waste the lives even of the other animals without cause.” – “How the Rattlesnakes Came To Be What They Are,” Zuñi Folk Tales, Frank Cushing

Not even for fifteen minutes?Not even for fifteen minutes?

“Calmness, forbearance, candor, and soft speech—these virtues of the good are by the insolent taken for the effects of incompetency.  The person who is self-laudatory, wicked, badly bold, and who publishes his own praise and metes out chastisement everywhere, is honored in the world.  By moderation one cannot attain celebrity; by moderation one cannot obtain fame.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddhakanda Sarga 21

A different kind of profit and lossA different kind of profit and loss

“Even a wicked-minded enemy, if he with folded palms and a poor heart craves for your shelter, should not be slain.  If an enemy, proud or terrified, seeks shelter in fear, he should be saved by a great man even at the risk of his own life.  One who from fear, ignorance, or willfulness does not protect him who seeks his shelter perpetrates a mighty iniquity and is blamed by all.  When a person is slain before him  whose shelter he has taken, he takes away all the virtues of his protector.  So great is the sin in not affording shelter unto those who seek it; it stands in the way of going to heaven, bringing in calumny and destroying strength and prowess.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddhakanda Sarga 18

A moment’s rash action, a lifetime of regretA moment’s rash action, a lifetime of regret

“The king who, arriving at certain conclusions, carries on his regal affairs agreeable to justice, has no need to repent afterwards.  But those actions that are done without deliberation, like unto clarified butter poured onto an unclean sacrifice, conduce only to harm.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddhakanda Sarga 12

Great lucky monkeysGreat lucky monkeys

“Who knows not the prowess of the monkeys who in the days of yore used to visit the celestials invited?” — Valmiki Ramayana, Sundarakanda Sarga 58

God help me, my skin is stuckGod help me, my skin is stuck

“What iniquity is there which cannot be perpetrated by the angry?  They can even slay the worshipful and vilify the pious with harsh words.  The angry cannot decide what should be spoken and what not.  There is no vice which cannot be committed by them, and there is nothing which cannot be spoken by them.  He is the proper person who can subdue his rising ire by means of forgiveness as a serpent leaves off his worn skin.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Sundarakanda Sarga 55

True equalityTrue equality

“Whether in the enjoyment of vast riches, or immersed in the abyss of miseries, Death is pulling a man, binding him roughly with a cord.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Sundarakanda Sarga 37

Barge-totin’ and bale-liftin’ with a passionBarge-totin’ and bale-liftin’ with a passion

“Whatever one does with vigor bears fruit.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Sundarakanda Sarga 12

One certainly hopes soOne certainly hopes so

“Perseverance is the source of good fortune.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Sundarakanda Sarga 12

Strap yourself inStrap yourself in

“He that, renouncing righteousness and the good, devotes himself to pleasure solely, is like a man that falling asleep on top of a tree, wakes when he has fallen down.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Kishkindhakanda Sarga 38

High Street 5.1 — Criminal DefenseHigh Street 5.1 — Criminal Defense

“You are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are you free to evade it.” — Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot

High Street 5.1 — “Criminal Defense” is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 5.2 — “Criminal Defense” (cont.))

Never is a long timeNever is a long time

“A vicious person can never relinquish his sinful habits—virtue never resides in the abodes of impious persons.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Aranyakanda Sarga 50

Prisons as deterrentsPrisons as deterrents

“In punishing wrongdoers, no one concentrates on the fact that a man has done wrong in the past, or punishes him on that account, unless taking blind vengeance like a beast.  No, punishment is not inflicted by a rational man for the sake of the crime that has been committed–after all one cannot undo what is past–but for the sake of the future, to prevent either the same man or, by the spectacle of his punishment, someone else, from doing wrong again.  But to hold such a view amounts to holding that virtue can be instilled by education; at all events the punishment is inflicted as a deterrent.  This then is the view held by all who inflict it whether privately or publicly.” — Plato, Protagoras (trans. Guthrie)

This will be on the testThis will be on the test

“No one is angered by the thoughts which are believed to be due to nature or chance, nor do people rebuke or teach or punish those who exhibit them, in the hope of curing them; they simply pity them.  Who would be so foolish as to treat in that way the ugly or dwarfish or weak?  Everyone knows that it is nature or chance which gives this kind of characteristics to a man, both the good and the bad.  But it is otherwise with the good qualities which are thought to be acquired through care and practice and instruction.  It is the absence of these, surely, and the presence of the corresponding vices, that call forth indignation and punishment and admonition.  Among these faults are to be put injustice and irreligion and in general everything that is contrary to civic virtue.  In this field indignation and admonition are universal, evidently because of a belief that such virtue can be acquired by taking thought or by instruction.” — Plato, Protagoras (trans. Guthrie)

Tea, anyone?Tea, anyone?

“The mass of people notice nothing, but simply echo what the leaders tell them.” — Plato, Protagoras (trans. Guthrie)

Equality, entropy, and justiceEquality, entropy, and justice

“We mold the best and strongest among ourselves, catching them young like lion cubs, and by spells and incantations we make slaves of them, saying that they must be content with equality and that this is what is right and fair.  But if a man arises endowed with a nature sufficiently strong, he will, I believe, shake off all these controls, burst his fetters, and break loose.  And trampling upon our scraps of paper, our spells and incantations, and all our unnatural conventions, he rises up and reveals himself our master who was once our slave, and there shines forth nature’s true justice.” — Plato, Gorgias (trans. Woodhead)

Comin’ to life, stayin’ aliveComin’ to life, stayin’ alive

“Once upon a time, there existed gods but no mortal creatures.  When the appointed time came for these also to be born, the gods formed them within the earth out of a mixture of earth and fire and the substances which are compounded from earth and fire.  And when they were ready to bring them to the light, they charged Prometheus and Epimetheus with the task of equipping them and allotting suitable powers to each kind.  Now Epimetheus begged Prometheus to allow him to do the distribution himself–‘and when I have done it,’ he said, ‘you can review it.’  So he persuaded him and set to work.  In his allotment he gave to some creatures strength without speed, and equipped the weaker kinds with speed.  Some he armed with weapons, while to the unarmed he gave some other faculty and so contrived means for their preservation.  To those that he endowed with smallness, he granted winged flight or a dwelling underground; to those which he increased in stature, their size itself was a protection.  Thus he made his whole distribution on a principle of compensation, being careful by these devices that no species should be destroyed.

“When he had sufficiently provided means of escape from mutual slaughter, he contrived their comfort against the seasons sent from Zeus, clothing them with thick hair or hard skins sufficient to ward off the winter’s cold, and effective also against heat, and he planned that when they went to bed, the same coverings should serve as proper and natural bedclothes for each species.  He shod them also, some with hoofs, others with hard and bloodless skin.

“Next he appointed different sorts of food for them–to some the grass of the earth, to others the fruit of the trees, to others roots.  Some he allowed to gain their nourishment by devouring other animals, and these he made less prolific, while he bestowed fertility on their victims, and so preserved the species.

“Now Epithemeus was not a particularly clever person, and before he realized it he had used up all the available powers on the brute beasts, and being left with the human race on his hands unprovided for, did not know what to do with them.  While he was puzzling about this, Prometheus came to inspect the work, and found the other animals well off for everything, but man naked, unshod, unbedded, and unarmed, and already the appointed day had come, when man too was to emerge from within the earth into the daylight.  Prometheus therefore, being at a loss to provide any means of salvation for man, stole from Hephaestus and Athena the gift of skill in the arts, together with fire–for without fire it was impossible for anyone to possess or use this skill–and bestowed it on man.  In this way man acquired sufficient resources to keep himself alive.” — Plato, Protagoras (trans. Guthrie)

The role of standardized testsThe role of standardized tests

“All knowledge, when separated from justice and virtue, is seen to be cunning and not wisdom.” — Plato, Menexenus (trans. Jowett)

ProbatedProbated

“The honor of parents is a fair and noble treasure to their posterity, but to have the use of a treasure of wealth and honor, and to leave none to your successors, because you have neither money nor reputation of your own, is alike base and dishonorable.” — Plato, Menexenus (trans. Jowett)

We’ll meet tomorrow and form a committeeWe’ll meet tomorrow and form a committee

“The king who does not deal with the concerns of his kingdom in person and on time, verily he, those concerns, and even his kingdom get ruined.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Aranyakanda Sarga 33

Self-contained as a nutSelf-contained as a nut

“He whose happiness rests with himself, if possible, wholly, and if not, as far as possible, who is not hanging in suspense on other men, or changing with the vicissitude of their fortune, has his life ordered for the best.” — Plato, Menexenus (trans. Jowett)

Morning is brokenMorning is broken

As a house that is solidly built ultimately falls into decay, so too are people subject to age and death. The night that has passed  does not return, and the bountiful river flows on. The passing days and nights quickly consume the lifetimes of every living thing, just as in the summer the rays of the sun dry up the water in a pool.

Whether you stay at home or depart to another place, your lifetime grows shorter. Death walks with us as we walk and sits with us as we sit. Having traveled a very long distance with us, death returns along with us as we return.

When wrinkles have appeared on the face and the hair has turned grey, how can a man having decayed with age come back to his original splendour? People are delighted when the sun has risen and also when the day ends. But they are not able to perceive the waning in their lifetimes.

Seeing the onset of a season, people rejoice, as though it has come anew. But the succession of the seasons devours life. As pieces of driftwood floating on the ocean come together for a time, so wives, children, kinsmen, wealth and property come together for a while and then depart from us. Their parting is indeed inevitable. Here, no living being can escape its destiny, its birth and death. As a caravan is passing by on a road, one standing at the wayside says, I will follow behind you.

— Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhyakanda Sarga 105

Suffer the citizensSuffer the citizens

“A prince should deliver the citizens from the sufferings brought upon themselves but should not bring suffering to the people for his own cause.” — Valmiki Ramayan, Ayodhyakanda Sarga 46

No recourseNo recourse

“The power of destiny is incomprehensible. Its power on all beings cannot be averted.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhyakanda Sarga 22

The inheritance of the meekThe inheritance of the meek

“In this world a person with soft nature is treated with disgrace.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhyakanda Sarga 21

Neither a Kennedy nor a Bush be theyNeither a Kennedy nor a Bush be they

“There was a great person named Kusa, born to Brahma.  He was a great ascetic of indefatigable vows, conversant with righteousness and worshipping good men. That eminent one married a princess of Vidarbha who was born in a noble descent and suitable to him.  He begot four virtuous sons comparable to himself named Kusamba, Kusanabha, Adhurta Rajas and Vasu. Highly lustrous king Kusa, possessor of great perseverance, eager to be righteous, always truthful in speech, with a desire to carry out the duties of the warrior race, addressed his sons saying: ‘O! My sons.  Be engaged in the task of governance by following righteousness. You will acquire immense merit’.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Balakanda Sarga 32