Sublime

The only certainty is that nothing is certain, and that nothing is less noble or more proud than man.

(Pliny–Naturalis Historia II.5)

For I do believe that there are gods, and in a sense higher than that in which any of my accusers believe in them. And to you and to God I commit my cause, to be determined by you as is best for you and me.

For I do believe that there are gods, and in a sense higher than that in which any of my accusers believe in them. And to you and to God I commit my cause, to be determined by you as is best for you and me.

When thou hast been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in a manner, quickly return to thyself and do not continue out of tune longer than the compulsion lasts; for thou wilt have more mastery over the harmony by continually recurring to it.

Plato having anointed truth as the goal of philosophy, the goal of human life. ‘Assuredly we must be bold to speak what is true, above all when our discourse is upon truth

He once quoted the poet Horace from memory: “The man who is just and firm of purpose can be shaken from his stern resolve neither by the rage of the people who urge him to crime nor by the countenance of the threatening tyrant.”

The virtue and wisdom produced through the proper operation of our faculties are properties we acquire and lose depending on the exercise of our free will. It is consequently not our nature to be virtuous or wise in the way it is our nature to be rational or alive.

C'est donc dans la vertu que réside le vrai bonheur. Et que te conseillera-t-elle ? De ne pas regarder comme biens ou comme maux ce qui n'est l'effet ni de la vertu, ni de la méchanceté ; puis, d'être inébranlable à tout mal qui viendrait d'un bien, et de te rendre, en ce qui dépend de toi, l'image de la divinité.