In this divided Platonic world, man is ever trying to reach some balance. For the most part he is drawn to the sensible world and is, thus, changeable, impulsive, imperfect himself. The transition from the world of the senses to that of reason is the...
I will begin with a picture of the man himself, as lifelike (though I am not great at description) as I can make it with nothing better than words. In-person — not to forget that part of him — he was a fine handsome man...
Charles Baudelaire was born in Paris in 1821. From an early age, he felt uncomfortable at home. His father died when he was five, and a year later his mother married a man her son disliked. He was sent to a succession of boarding schools from...
"To laugh is to risk appearing the fool." Well, so what? Fools have a lot of fun. "To weep is to risk being called sentimental." Of course I'm sentimental. I love it! Tears can help. "To reach out to another is to risk involvement." Who's risking involvement?...
When the pain in Mulla Nasruddin's back became unbearable, he reluctantly went to a specialist to diagnose his problem. "Well," said the doctor, "your problem can be cured by an operation, two weeks in the hospital and six months totally horizontal." "Doctor, I can't afford the...
THE turner, Grigory Petrov, who had been known for years past as a splendid craftsman, and at the same time as the most senseless peasant in the Galtchinskoy district, was taking his old woman to the hospital. He had to drive over twenty miles, and...
The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love,...
Upon landing at Sicily, Odysseus and his men discovered a cave laden with provisions and set about feasting. It was, however, the pair of Polyphemus. When the giant returned from grazing his sheep, he imprisoned the sailors and began to systematically devour them. The Greeks understood this not...
The puppets cannot have freedom to fight, to love, to get married - all these things happen in a puppet show to dance or not to dance; or when they don't want to dance, to say, "No, I am not going to dance." The puppet...
After the Egyptian queen and her longtime lover, the Roman general Mark Antony, saw their combined forces decimated in the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., they retreated to an uncertain future in Alexandria. Months later, with the Roman army of Octavian at the city’s...
