The "love" of infants and pets and even dependently obedient spouses is an instinctual pattern of behavior to which it is quite appropriate to apply the term "maternal instinct" or, more generally, "parental instinct." We can liken this to the instinctual behavior of "falling in...
SENECA, De tranquillitate animi 8, 3 - 7 Tolerabilius autem est, ut dixi, faciliusque non adquirere quam amittere, ideoque laetiores videbis, quos numquam fortuna respexit, quam quos deseruit. Vidit hoc Diogenes, vir ingentis animi, et efficit, ne quid sibi eripi possit (5) si quis de felicitate...
There’s an old fable about a grumpy old goose who approached a horse in a paddock. “I am certainly a more noble and perfect animal than you,” the goose hissed, “For the whole range and extent of your faculties is confined to one element. However, I...
Talleyrand was the consummate courtier, especially in serving his master Napoleon. When the two men were first getting to know each other, Napoleon once said in passing, "I shall come to lunch at your house one of these days." Talleyrand had a house at Auteuil,...
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Philosopher (1803–1882), Transcendentalist Through the ages, an impressive number of philosophers - from hedonists to transcendentalists - have rated friendship as life's greatest pleasure. Not...
What is giving? Simple as the answer to this question seems to be, it is actually full of ambiguities and complexities. The most widespread misunderstanding is that which assumes that giving is "giving up" something, being deprived of, sacrificing. The person whose character has not...
I want you to imagine that you live on a planet where everyone has a skin disease. For two or three thousand years, the people on your planet have suffered the same disease: Their entire bodies are covered by wounds that are infected, and those...
All of us are chained to Fortune. Some are bound by a loose and golden chain, others by a tight chain of baser metal; but what difference does it make? The same captivity holds all men in its toils, those who have bound others have...
Believing that the growth of the human spirit is the end of human existence, I am obviously dedicated to the notion of progress. It is right and proper that as human beings we should grow and progress as rapidly as possible. It is therefore right...
Hakuin was a man of few words, a man of silence. For years he would not speak at all, and then he would speak a word or two. Once the emperor of Japan invited him to deliver a sermon in the palace. And the queen and...
