My Blog

Tag: reflection

  • 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…

  • Cure for ignorance

    “Anyone who wants to be cured of ignorance must confess it.” III.11 Of cripples (p. 959)

  • Nothing costs me dear

    Nothing costs me dear except care and trouble, and I seek only to grow indifferent and relaxed. III. 9 “Of vanity” (p. 884).

  • Myself now and myself a while ago

    “Myself now and myself a while ago are indeed two; but when better, I simply cannot say. It would be fine to be old if we traveled only toward improvement. It is a drunkard’s motion, staggering, dizzy, wobbling, or that of reeds that the wind stirs haphazardly as it pleases.” III.9 “Of vanity” (p.895)

  • The empty husks that strike us

    “It takes little to divert and distract us, for it takes little to hold us. We scarcely look at things in gross and alone; it is the minute and superficial circumstances and notions that strike us, and the empty husks that peel off from the things…” III.4 “Of diversion” (p. 770)

  • I cannot keep my subject still

    “I cannot keep my subject still. It goes along befuddled and staggering, with a natural drunkenness . . . If my mind could gain a firm footing, I would not make essays, I would make decisions[.]” III.2 “Of Repentance” (p. 740)

  • Life is full of fireworks

    ““Life is full of fireworks; death, of love and courtesy.” II.35 “Of three good women” (p 683)

  • Bundle of disparate pieces

    “This bundle of so many disparate pieces is being composed in this manner: I set my hand to it only when pressed by too unnerving an idleness, and nowhere but at home.” II.31 Of the resemblance of children to fathers (p.696)

  • No good thing is exempt from some mixture of pain and discomfort

    “The weakness of our condition makes it impossible for things to come into our experience in their natural simplicity and purity […] Of the pleasures and good things that we have, there is not one exempt from some mixture of pain and discomfort.” II. 20 “We taste nothing pure” (p. 619)

  • Cowardice, mother of cruelty

    “I have often heard it said that cowardice is the mother of cruelty… I have observed that some of the most cruel are subject weeping easily and for frivolous reasons.” II. 27 “Cowardice mother of cruelty” (p. 635)