Category: Analects

Analect of the Core #11

September 22, 2010 at 1:15 pm

The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame. — Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan. “Few historians know of the heartwarming friendship between French Reformation theologian John Calvin and English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, the latter of whom may or may not have been real, […]

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Analects of the Core: Shakespeare on being true to oneself

September 16, 2010 at 11:59 am

This above all, to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. – Polonius, chief counselor to the king, in Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene. NB: In view of the surging enthusiasm for the Doctor Who series, we […]

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Analects of the Core: Confucius on thought and learning

September 15, 2010 at 12:17 pm

He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger. -Confucius, Lunyu (“Analects”) 2.15

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Analects of the Core: Lao-Tzu on contention

September 14, 2010 at 5:01 pm

Since the Sage does not contend No one can contend with the Sage. -philosopher Lao-Tzu, in the Tao Te Ching.

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Analects of the Core: Virgil on the urge to action

September 13, 2010 at 10:41 am

Dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt, Euryale, an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido? This urge to action, do the gods instill it, or is each man’s desire a god to him? — Nisus, The Aeneid, Book IX, 184 f., trans. Robert Fitzgerald (Vintage, 1990). A discussion of the implications of this’ question of the “urge […]

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Analects of the Core: Voltaire on loving the burden of life

September 10, 2010 at 11:08 am

illustration from a 1918 edition Je voulus cent fois me tuer, mais j’aimais encore la vie. Cette faiblesse ridicule est peut-être un de nos penchants les plus funestes; car y a-t-il rien de plus sot que de vouloir porter continuellement un fardeau qu’on veut toujours jeter par terre […] I have wanted to kill myself […]

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Analects of the Core: Milton on wand’ring steps

September 9, 2010 at 4:54 pm

The world was all before them, where to choose their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand with wand’ring steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way. – lines 646-9, from Paradise Lost, by John Milton (Signet Books, 2010)

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Analects of the Core: Goethe on thoughtful writing

September 8, 2010 at 4:21 pm

Bedenke wohl die erste Zeile, Daß deine Feder sich nicht übereile! Before you write this first phrase, think again; Good sense eludes the overhasty pen. –the scholar Faust, in Faust: Part One, by J. W. von Goethe, translated by David Luke (Oxford University Press, 1998)

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