Travel is no alleviation of travail but a form of it.
Category: Aphorisms and Observations
Under the Aspect of Eternity
A man who is temporarily strong is weak if his strength does not extend to the indefinite maintenance of his strength.
Spiritual Practices versus Theological Dogmas
It would be foolish to let the dubiousness of theological dogmas distract you from spiritual exercises and the good achievable by their exercise. Don't let the apparent absurdities of the Chalcedonian definition stop you from saying the Jesus Prayer.
Years Pass, Dates Repeat
You were born only once but every year you have a birthday. Equally, you will die only once but every year you have a death day, the date on which you will die. It is just that you don't know what it is.
Suppose you could know the date of your death but not the year. Suppose that date is 16 October. Then on that date you would be a little worried and especially careful, both physically and morally. And then on the 17th you could relax for a whole year.
But even this comfort is not granted us.
Evening and Morning
The quality of the first will affect the quality of the second. An evening of drinking and dancing is no preparation for a morning of thinking and trancing.
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Primum Vivere, Deinde Philosophari
We have it on good authority that the unexamined life is not worth living. But it is equally true that the unlived life is not worth examining.
One Reason the Present Matters
The present is the matter of future memories. So live that one's memories will not be regrets.
The Ambiguity of Death
Death is ineluctable and irrevocable, but still equivocal this side of the divide. It presents itself, by turns, as the worst of calamities and as a welcome release from an untenable predicament.
A Death Paradox
The prospect of death, especially one's own, puts paid to frivolity. It makes us serious. The paradox, however, is that death, ineluctable and final, 'proves' the absurdity of human existence.
Death imparts seriousness to a life that it also suggests is a joke.
What It Takes to Appreciate the Brevity and Vanity of Life
Live a long life to appreciate that life is short; live a full life to appreciate that it is empty.
Knowing Less
Knowing less of a person is often better for good relations than knowing more. The old forms and formalities have their uses. They come from a time when human nature was better understood, and it was understood that civility is better served by reserve than by 'letting it all hang out.' They come from a time when it was taken for granted that there is such a thing as human nature.
A Modest View of Oneself
A modest view of oneself may reflect self-knowledge or lack of self-confidence. But to know which requires self-knowledge.
Strange Unbalanced Creatures
One and the same person at one time unjustly mocks, belittles, ridicules, blasphemes, denigrates, scorns, and contemns. At another time he idolizes, unjustly places on a pedestal, engages in inordinate praise, and prostrates himself before a pseudo-god.
Brain and Space
Searching the brain to find the mind is like searching outer space to find God.
The Believing Philosopher
The religious belief of a believing philosopher is a reasoned belief, and even if his belief extends to the acceptance of mysteries that to the discursive intellect must appear contradictory, his is a reasoned mysterianism.