The one who is to be an orator does not need to know what is really just, but what would seem just to the multitudes who are to pass judgement, and not what is really good or noble, but what will seem to be so; for they say that persuasion comes from what seems to be true, not from the truth.
— Plato's Dialogue (Phaedrus)
— Plato's Dialogue (Phaedrus)
Forwarded from Labyrinth
Who hath a harder battle to fight than he who striveth for self-mastery?
(Thomas à Kempis)
(Thomas à Kempis)
In all ages the wisest have always agreed in their judgement of life: it is no good. At all times and places the same words have been on their lips,—words full of doubt, full of melancholy, full of weariness of life, full of hostility to life. Even Socrates’ dying words were:—“To live—means to be ill a long while: I owe a rooster to the god Æsculapius.”
These great sages of all periods should first be examined more closely! Is it possible that they were, everyone of them, a little shaky on their legs, effete, rocky, decadent? Does wisdom perhaps appear on earth after the manner of a crow attracted by a slight smell of carrion?
What? Is it possible that all these great sages were not only decadents, but that they were not even wise?
These great sages of all periods should first be examined more closely! Is it possible that they were, everyone of them, a little shaky on their legs, effete, rocky, decadent? Does wisdom perhaps appear on earth after the manner of a crow attracted by a slight smell of carrion?
What? Is it possible that all these great sages were not only decadents, but that they were not even wise?
If we evolved a race of Isaac Newtons, that would not be progress. For the price Newton had to pay for being a supreme intellect was that he was incapable of friendship, love, fatherhood, and many other desirable things. As a man he was a failure; as a monster he was superb.
— Aldous Huxley
— Aldous Huxley
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If we evolved a race of Isaac Newtons, that would not be progress. For the price Newton had to pay for being a supreme intellect was that he was incapable of friendship, love, fatherhood, and many other desirable things. As a man he was a failure; as a monster…
لَو طَوَّرنا عِرقًا كاملًا ممّن يُشبهون إسحاق نيوتن فهذا لَن يُحسَبَ تقدّمًا. لأنّ نيوتن دفعَ الثمنَ غاليًا ليكونَ العقلَ السامي الذي هو عليه، فَلَم يقدِر على صداقةٍ أو حبٍّ أو أُبوة، وغيرِها الكثير من الأُمور المرغوبة. هو خائبٌ من حيثُ كونِه رجلًا؛ لكنّه بديعٌ من حيثُ كونِه وحشًا.
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لَو طَوَّرنا عِرقًا كاملًا ممّن يُشبهون إسحاق نيوتن فهذا لَن يُحسَبَ تقدّمًا. لأنّ نيوتن دفعَ الثمنَ غاليًا ليكونَ العقلَ السامي الذي هو عليه، فَلَم يقدِر على صداقةٍ أو حبٍّ أو أُبوة، وغيرِها الكثير من الأُمور المرغوبة. هو خائبٌ من حيثُ كونِه رجلًا؛ لكنّه…
Latin: Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit
English: He who surpassed the human race in intellect
English: He who surpassed the human race in intellect