ON BEING IDLE Now, this is a subject on which I flatter myself I really am au fait. The gentleman who, when I was young, bathed me at wisdom's font for nine guineas a term—no extras—used to say he never knew a boy who could do less...
Gossip is black magic at its very worst because it is pure poison. We learned how to gossip by agreement. When we were children, we heard the adults around us gossiping all the time, openly giving their opinions about other people. They even had opinions...
If you become animal-like, then boredom disappears. So you will find that people who live a very animalistic life are less bored. Eating, drinking, marrying -- they are not very bored, but they are not sensitive. They live at the minimum. They live only with that...
Aeneas was the son of Aghisis and the goddess Aphrodite, brother of Lyros and a relative of the king of Troy, Priam. Aeneas took part in the Trojan War as leader of the Dardanians, as an ally of the Trojans, and was the bravest hero...
PHILOSOPHER: Well, can you tell me what is going on? YOUTH: You’re asking why I have come to visit this study again? Well, unfortu- nately, I’m not here just to hang out and renew an old friendship. I’m sure you are busy, and my situation, too, is that...
You need to avoid certain things in your train of thought: everything random, everything irrelevant. And certainly everything self-important or malicious. You need to get used to winnowing your thoughts, so that if someone says, “What are you thinking about?” you can respond at once...
The selective withholding of one's opinions must also be practiced from time to time in the world of business or Withholding Truth politics if one is to be welcomed into the councils of power. If people were always to speak their minds on issues both...
Considering the following two illnesses, the sadness and the desire, are there illnesses of the body which are worse? And how can we claim that our spirit was the one which discovered the art of body therapy?Moreover, it is obvious that the body treatment is...
But as for you, have you the leisure to search out others' evils and to pass judgment upon anybody? "Why does this philosopher have such a spacious house?" "Why does this one dine so sumptuously?" you say. You look at the pimples of others when...
Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself, and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd, Desiring this...
