their view of things

"People are disturbed not by things but by their view of things." - Epictetus

a man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God

"A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence with retribution and reward, can have for his rule of life, as far as I can see, only to follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest or which seem to him the best ones...."

[Charles Darwin from The Autobiography of Charles Darwin]

empty sophistry? or an abyss?

"But we are now seeking not the truth of essential nature but the essential nature of truth. There thus appears a curious tangle. Is it only a curiosity or even merely the empty sophistry of a conceptual game, or is it -- an abyss?"

[Martin Heidegger, from "The Origin of the Work of Art"]

the piety of thinking

"Questioning is the piety of thinking."

[Martin Heidegger]

choice, not chance

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” 

[Aristotle]

they never lose a minute

“Sooner or later, the great men turn out to be all alike. They never stop working. They never lose a minute. It is very depressing.”

[V.S. Pritchett]

only men sit down to think about what is important and not urgent

"In the first place, [men] think about problems that there is absolutely no need for them to solve so far as their biological needs, their struggle for survival, are concerned: the problems of mathematics, the problems of philosophy, the problems of any of the theoretical or speculative sciences. And in the second place, the manner in which they think about those problems is quite different. An animal, when thinking about or solving a problem, is active. He uses his senses, uses his limbs, runs around. But a man thinks in a different manner. You all I’m sure have the image of the human thinker. It is given us by that statue of Rodin’s which is here in San Francisco, Le Penseur. If you think about that famous statue, I want you to notice something. There is the posture of human thought. And what you see about that posture is intense bodily inactivity. Only men sit down to think about what is important and not urgent."

[Mortimer Adler, How to Think about the Great Ideas] 

Aristotle

faster than death

"It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death." - Socrates, Apology

many sacred veils

"We cannot be enlightened by the divine rays except they be hidden within the covering of many sacred veils." - Dionysius

The Turin Horse

"Theirs is the moment...Nature, infinite silence."

Good movie to watch as I am beginning the Philosophy & Theology segment at St. John's this summer...

birth is nothing but...

by V. Rae

 "Birth is nothing but the separation of one living body from another." 

[Mortimer Adler, Aristotle for Everybody]

we must understand Jerusalem and Athens

All the hopes that we entertain in the midst of the confusions and dangers of the present are founded positively or negatively, directly or indirectly on the experiences of the past. Of these experiences the broadest and deepest, as far as we Western men are concerned, are indicated by the names of the two cities Jerusalem and Athens. Western man became what he is and is what he is through the coming together of biblical faith and Greek thought. In order to understand ourselves and to illuminate our trackless way into the future, we must understand Jerusalem and Athens.

[Leo Strauss]