Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Sage Advice

  • The Additivity of Small Amounts of Money

    He who is penny-foolish will also be pound-foolish.

  • The Useless Rehearsal of the Useful

    Avoid not only useless thoughts, but also the useless rehearsing of useful thoughts.

  • Desiderata

    To live beyond society, beyond the need for recognition and status. To live in truth, alone with nature and nature's God and the great problems and questions.  There are the ancient dead ones for companionship.  They speak across the centuries.  With them we form a community of the like-minded in nomine scientiae.

  • Philosophy and Livelihood

    Recently over the transom: I'm wondering, as a 17 year old early entrant to university who's looking for a direction in his life: how do you manage to make a living from what you do? Also, keep up the great work! I have been asked this question many times and have written several posts in…

  • Sage Advice

    If only sages proffered Sage Advice, none would be.

  • Higher Than the Gold Standard

    Think about others as you would have them think about you. An unattainably high ideal?  As things are, "If thoughts could kill, everybody would be dead." (Schopenhauer)

  • The Low Intellectual and Moral Level at Oxford and Other Universities

    The piece ends with good advice: . . . if you do not share the universities' values, it could be a big mistake to send your children to college before they are intellectually and morally prepared for the indoctrination-rather-than-education they will receive there. Therefore, prepare them morally and intellectually and, if possible, do not send…

  • The Quester

    What is the quester after? What does he seek?  He doesn't quite know, and that is part of his being a romantic. He experiences his present 'reality' as flat, stale, jejune, oppressive, substandard. He feels there must be more to life than work-a-day routines and social objectifications, the piling up of loot, getting ahead, "competitive…

  • Gratitude: A Thanksgiving Homily

    Here again my annual Thanksgiving homily, addressed as much to myself as to my Stateside and worldwide readers: We need spiritual exercises just as we need physical, mental, and moral exercises. A good spiritual exercise, and easy to boot, is daily recollection of just how good one has it, just how rich and full one's…

  • Printer’s Ink

    Don't confuse printer's ink with the embalming fluid of Truth Herself.

  • Breathe Deeply and Slow Down

    Dave Bagwill referred me to this entry from Zen Habits: Breathe. If you feel overwhelmed, breathe. It will calm you and release the tensions. If you are worried about something coming up, or caught up in something that already happened, breathe. It will bring you back to the present. If you are moving too fast,…

  • Care of Soul and Body

    Care for your soul as if you will die tomorrow; care for your body as if it will last indefinitely.  (The thought is borrowed from Evagrios Pontikos.)

  • Self-Control and Respect for Authority

    If Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri fame had been properly brought up to have self-control and to respect authority he might be alive today.  Police have the authority to issue commands in certain circumstances as when people are violating laws by, say, walking in the street.  Cops are often rude and arrogant.  No doubt about…

  • Pray to Pray Well

    And this in two senses.  Pray to become good at praying.  And pray for assistance in getting good at it.

  • Advice from Erasmus

    Enchiridion, p. 104: Transfer your love to something permanent, something celestial, something incorruptible, and you will love more coolly this transitory and fleeting form of the body. Related articles Milton Praises the Strenuous Life