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School of stupidity
“Isn’t that what we say, that the stupidity and lack of apprehension of the vulgar gives them this endurance of present troubles and this profound nonchalance about sinister accidents to come, that their souls, because they are thick and obtuse, are less penetrable and unstable? For Heaven’s sake, if that is so, let us henceforth…
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Man’s estate
“I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man’s estate.” III.2 “Of repentance” (p. 740)
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The sole and unique protector
“He is indeed our sole and unique protector, and can do anything to help us; but although he deigns to honor us with that sweet fatherly relationship, nevertheless, he is as just as he is good and as he is powerful. But he exercises his justice much more often than his power, and favors us…
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Life is neither good nor evil
“Life is neither good nor evil in itself: it is the scene of good and evil according as you give them room.” I.20 “That to philosophize is to learn to die” (p. 78)
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To philosophize is to prepare for death
“Cicero says that to philosophize is nothing else but to prepare for death. This is because study and contemplation draw our soul out of us to some extent and keep it busy outside the body; which is a sort of apprenticeship and semblance of death.” I.20 “That to philosophize is to learn to die” (p.…