It is not enough to know what we ought to say; we must also say it as we ought.
Aristotle, Rhetoric, 1403b.
There is a book of his [Heraclitus] extant, which is about nature generally, and it is divided into three discourses; one on the Universe; one on Politics; and one on Theology. And he deposited this book in the temple of Diana, as some authors report, having written it intentionally in an obscure style, in order that only those who were able men might comprehend it, and that it might not be exposed to ridicule at the hands of the common people.
Diogenes Laertius, The Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 9, 6.
But if there is an absolute necessity for their mention, a chosen few might hear them in a mystery, and they should sacrifice not an Eleusinian pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim; and then the number of the hearers will be very few indeed.
Plato, Republic, 378a.
The function of speech is to influence the soul. It follows that the would-be speaker must know how many types of soul there are… For such and such a reason a certain type of person can be easily persuaded to adopt a certain course of action by a certain type of speech, whereas for an equally valid reason a different type cannot…
A man who does not distinguish the various natures among his audience, and who cannot analyse things into their species and classify individuals under a single form will never attain such mastery of the art of speaking as is open to man…
Plato, Phaedrus, 271-273.
“O Śāriputra! I too am now like this. Having understood the various desires and deep-rooted inclinations of sentient beings, I teach the Dharma according to their capacities through the power of skilful means, using various explanations and illustrations.”
Saddharmapundarīkasūtra [Lotus Sutra], 2.
This is the truth, the rishi Angiras declared it in ancient time. One who has not performed the vow does not read this.
Adoration to the highest rishis!
Mundaka Upanishad, 3, 2, 11.
ONE LEVEL
When they divided Purusha [The Man], how many portions did they make?
What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet?
The Brahmania [lover of wisdom] was his mouth, of both his arms was the Kshatriya [warrior] made.
His thighs became the Vaisya [peasant], from his feet the Śūdra [servant] was produced.
Rig Veda, 10, 90, 11-12.
We worship the Fravashi of Gaya Maretan, who first listened into the thought and teaching of Ahura Mazda; of whom Ahura formed the people of the honourable nations, the seed of the honourable nations.
We worship the piety and the Fravashi of the holy Zarathustra;
Who first thought what is good, who first did what is good; who was the first Āthravan [lover of wisdom], the first Warrior, the first Plougher of the ground…
Avesta, Farvardīn Yasht, 24, 87-88.
Let the three twice-born varna, discharging their duties, study the Veda; but among them the Brahmania alone shall teach it, not the other two; that is an established rule.
The Brahmania must know the means of subsistence prescribed by law for all, instruct the others, and himself live according to the law.
On account of his pre-eminence, on account of the superiority of his origin, on account of his observance of restrictive rules, and on account of his particular sanctification the Brahmania is the lord of all varna.
Brahmanias, the Kshatriyas, and the Vaisyas are the twice-born ones, but the fourth, the Śūdra, has one birth only; there is no fifth varna.
Mānavadharmaśāstra [Laws of Manu], 10, 1-4.
‘May ten sons be born of you! In three of them mayest thou be an Āthravan! In three of them mayest thou be a warrior! In three of them mayest thou be a tiller of the ground! And may one be like yourself, O Vīstāspa!’
Avesta, Āfrīn Paighambar Zartūsht, 5.
‘Think, now, and say whether you agree with me or not. Suppose a carpenter to be doing the business of a cobbler, or a cobbler of a carpenter; and suppose them to exchange their implements or their duties, or the same person to be doing the work of both, or whatever be the change; do you think that any great harm would result to the State?’
‘Not much.’
‘But when the cobbler or any other man whom nature designed to be a trader, having his heart lifted up by wealth or strength or the number of his followers, or any like advantage, attempts to force his way into the class of warriors, or a warrior into that of legislators and guardians, for which he is unfitted, and either to take the implements or the duties of the other; or when one man is trader, legislator, and warrior all in one, then I think you will agree with me in saying that this interchange and this meddling of one with another is the ruin of the State.’
‘Most true.’
‘Seeing, then,’ I said, ‘that there are three distinct classes, any meddling of one with another, or the change of one into another, is the greatest harm to the State, and may be most justly termed evil-doing?’
Plato, Republic, 434a-c.
One Law for the Lion and Ox is Oppression.
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 24, 11.
A base-born man either resembles in character his father, or his mother, or both; he can never conceal his real nature.
Even if a man, born in a great family, sprang from criminal intercourse, he will certainly possess the faults of his father, be they small or great.
But that kingdom in which such bastards, sullying the purity of varna, are born, perishes quickly together with its inhabitants.
Mānavadharmaśāstra [Laws of Manu], 10, 59-61.
Long ago they say that along the green roads
A powerful, mature, and knowledgeable god went walking,
Mighty and vigorous, Rig stepping along.
Further on he went walking in the middle of the roads,
He came to a house, the door was ajar;
In he stepped, there was a fire on the floor;
A couple sat there, grey-haired, by the hearth,
Great-grandfather and Great-grandmother
In an old-fashioned head-dress.
Rig was able to give them some advice;
Moreover he sat in the middle of the bench,
And the couple of the household on either side.
Then Great-grandmother brought a coarse loaf,
Thick and heavy, stuffed with grain;
And she set too in the middle of the table
Boiled meats in the bowls, put on a platter,
It was boiled calf-meat, the best of delicacies;
He got up from there, got ready to sleep.
On top of that he lay in the middle of the bed,
With the couple of the household on either side.
There he was for three nights together;
Then away from there he went in the middle of the roads,
Nine months passed after that.
Great-grandmother had a baby, and poured water over it,
Dark as flax, they called it Thrall.
He began to grow and to thrive well;
On his hands there was wrinkled skin,
Crooked knuckles,
Thick fingers, he had an ugly face,
A crooked back, long heels.
But also he began to grow in strength,
To weave bast rope to make baskets.
Brushwood he carried home the whole day long.
Then there came to the farm a bandy-legged girl;
She had mud on her soles, her arms were sunburned,
Her nose was bent, her name was Slavegirl.
And then she sat in the middle of the bench;
The son of the house sat next her;
They talked and they whispered, they went to bed together,
Thrall and Slavegirl, through hard-working days.
Children they had, they lived and they were happy;
I think they were called Weatherbeaten and Stableboy,
Stout and Sticky, Rough, Badbreath,
Stumpy, Fatty, Sluggard and Greyish,
Lout and Longlegs; they established farms,
Put dung on the fields, worked with swine,
Looked after goats, dug the turf.
Their daughters were Stumpina and Podgy,
Bulgy-calves and Bellows-nose,
Noisy and Bondwoman, Great-gabbler,
Raggedy-hips and Crane-legs.
From them are descended all the breed of slaves.
Rigsthula [List of Rig], 1-13.
He who is by nature not his own but another's man, is by nature a slave; and he may be said to be another's man who, being a human being, is also a possession. And a possession may be defined as an instrument of action, separable from the possessor.
But is there any one thus intended by nature to be a slave, and for whom such a condition is expedient and right, or rather is not all slavery a violation of nature?
There is no difficulty in answering this question, on grounds both of reason and of fact. For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection…
It must be admitted that some are slaves everywhere, others nowhere.
Aristotle, Politics, 1254a12 – 1255a35.
'The getting those various articles in exchange for grain, is not oppressive to the potter and the founder, and the potter and the founder in their turn, in exchanging their various articles for grain, are not oppressive to the husbandman. How should such a thing be supposed? And moreover, why does not Hsü act the potter and founder, supplying himself with the articles which he uses solely from his own establishment? Why does he go confusedly dealing and exchanging with the handicraftsmen? Why does he not spare himself so much trouble?' Ch'an Hsiang replied, 'The business of the handicraftsman can by no means be carried on along with the business of husbandry.'
Meng Tzu resumed, 'Then, is it the government of the kingdom which alone can be carried on along with the practice of husbandry? Great men have their proper business, and little men have their proper business. Moreover, in the case of any single individual, whatever articles he can require are ready to his hand, being produced by the various handicraftsmen:-- if he must first make them for his own use, this way of doing would keep all the people running about upon the roads. Hence, there is the saying, "Some labour with their minds, and some labour with their strength. Those who labour with their minds govern others; those who labour with their strength are governed by others. Those who are governed by others support them; those who govern others are supported by them." This is a principle universally recognised.'
Meng Tzu [Mencius], 3, a, 4.
It is characteristic of the proud man not to aim at the things commonly held in honour, or the things in which others excel; to be sluggish and to hold back except where great honour or a great work is at stake, and to be a man of few deeds, but of great and notable ones.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1124b25-31.
‘His [the Guardian’s] soul is to be full of spirit [thymos]?’
‘Yes.’
‘But are not these spirited natures apt to be savage with one another, and with everybody else?’
‘A difficulty by no means easy to overcome’ he replied.
‘Whereas’ I said, ‘they ought to be dangerous to their enemies, and gentle to their friends; if not, they will destroy themselves without waiting for their enemies to destroy them.’
‘True’ he said.
‘What is to be done, then?’ I said; ‘how shall we find a gentle nature which has also a great spirit, for the one is the contradiction of the other?’
‘True.’
‘He will not be a good guardian who is wanting in either of these two qualities; and yet the combination of them appears to be impossible; and hence we must infer that to be a good guardian is impossible.’
‘I am afraid that what you say is true’ he replied.
Here feeling perplexed I began to think over what had preceded. ‘My friend,’ I said, ‘no wonder that we are in a perplexity; for we have lost sight of the image which we had before us... Would not he who is fitted to be a guardian, besides the spirited nature, need to have the qualities of a philosopher? ... He who is to be a really good and noble guardian of the State will require to unite in himself philosophy and spirit and swiftness and strength.’
Plato, Republic, 375b – 376c.
Shall every man be at once husbandman, artisan, councillor, judge, or shall we suppose the several occupations just mentioned assigned to different persons? Or, thirdly, shall some employments be assigned to individuals and others common to all? ...
In the state which is best governed and possesses men who are just absolutely, and not merely relatively to the principle of the constitution, the citizens must not lead the life akin to the slave’s, for such a life is ignoble, and inimical to virtue. And leisure is necessary both for the development of virtue and the performance of political duties...
Husbandmen, craftsmen, and labourers of any kind are necessary to the existence of states, but the parts of the state are the warriors and councillors. And these are distinguished severally from one another, the distinction being in some cases permanent, in others not.
It is not a new or recent discovery of political philosophers that the state ought to be divided into classes, and that the warriors should be separated from the husbandmen... It is true indeed that these and many other things have been invented several times over in the course of ages, or rather times without number; for necessity may be supposed to have taught men the inventions which were absolutely required, and when these were provided, it was natural that other things which would adorn and enrich life should grow up by degrees. And we may infer that in political institutions the same rule holds... We should therefore make the best use of what has been already discovered, and try to supply defects.
Aristotle, Politics, 1328b24 – 1329b35.
As good seed, springing up in good soil, turns out perfectly well, even so the son of a Noble by a Noble woman is worthy of all the sacraments.
Some sages declare the seed to be more important, and others the field; again others (assert that) the seed and the field (are equally important); but the legal decision on this point is as follows:
Seed, sown on barren ground, perishes in it; a (fertile) field also, in which no (good) seed (is sown), will remain barren.
Mānavadharmaśāstra [Laws of Manu], 10, 69-71.
‘How, O Lord, when all dharmas are like a dream, non-entities, with non-existence for their own-being and empty of own marks, can there be a definite distinction between them, to the effect that these dharmas are wholesome and those unwholesome, these worldly and those supramundane, these with and those without outflows, these conditioned and those unconditioned…?’
Mahāprajnāpāramitāsūtra [Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom]
(Abhisamayālankāra, 8, 4).
If truth be nothing other than the assertion of what it is falsity to negate, then it is impossible that all things can be false, since one half of the pair of contradictories must be true. Indeed these arguments themselves fall victim to the very difficulty about which their defenders are always canting. They effectively destroy themselves. For if anyone says that all things are true then he is making even the negation of his own claim true, so that his own statement in turn is not true (that is, after all, what its negation asserts), while if anyone says that all things are false, then he is making his own claim false. And if the first claimant excepts the contradiction of his claim on the grounds that it alone is not true and the second excepts his own claim as not being false, nevertheless they still require an infinite number of statements to be true and false, since the statement that says that the true statement is true is true and so on ad infinitum.
Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1012b.
The questions that we raise and our doubts depend on the fact that some propositions are exempt from doubt, are as it were like hinges on which those turn.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty, 450.
‘If all dharmas are one vast undifferentiatedness, how can the Bodhisattva, after he has set out for the full enlightenment, ever know that he fully knows it?’
(Abhisamayālankāra, 8, 5).
‘If, most reverend Nagasena, no person can be apprehended in reality, who then, I ask you, gives you what you require by way of robes, food, lodging, and medicines? Who is it that consumes them? Who is it that guards morality, practices meditation, and realises the four paths and their Fruits, and thereafter Nirvana? Who is it that kills living beings, takes what is not given, commits sexual misconduct, tells lies, drinks intoxicants? Who is it that commits the five Deadly Sins? For if there were no persons, there could be no merit or demerit; no doer of meritorious or demeritorious deeds, and no agent behind them; no fruit of good and evil deeds, and no reward or punishment for them. If someone should kill you, O Venerable Nagasena, he would not commit any murder. And you yourself, Venerable Nagasena, would not be a real teacher, or instructor, or ordained monk!’
Milindapañha, 3.
There are some who, as we said, both themselves assert that it is possible for the same thing to be and not to be, and say that people can judge this to be the case. And among others many writers about nature use this language. But we have now posited that it is impossible for anything at the same time to be and not to be, and by this means have shown that this is the most indisputable of all principles.-Some indeed demand that even this shall be demonstrated, but this they do through want of education, for not to know of what things one should demand demonstration, and of what one should not, argues want of education. For it is impossible that there should be demonstration of absolutely everything (there would be an infinite regress, so that there would still be no demonstration); but if there are things of which one should not demand demonstration, these persons could not say what principle they maintain to be more self-evident than the present one.
Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1006a.
For why does a man walk to Megara and not stay at home, when he thinks he ought to be walking there? Why does he not walk early some morning into a well or over a precipice, if one happens to be in his way? Why do we observe him guarding against this, evidently because he does not think that falling in is alike good and not good? Evidently, then, he judges one thing to be better and another worse. And if this is so, he must also judge one thing to be a man and another to be not-a-man, one thing to be sweet and another to be not-sweet. For he does not aim at and judge all things alike, when, thinking it desirable to drink water or to see a man, he proceeds to aim at these things; yet he ought, if the same thing were alike a man and not-a-man. But, as was said, there is no one who does not obviously avoid some things and not others. Therefore, as it seems, all men make unqualified judgements, if not about all things, still about what is better and worse. And if this is not knowledge but opinion, they should be all the more anxious about the truth, as a sick man should be more anxious about his health than one who is healthy; for he who has opinions is, in comparison with the man who knows, not in a healthy state as far as the truth is concerned.
Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1008b.
“And yet,” said Parmenides, “if someone, in turn, Socrates, after focusing on all these problems and others still, shall deny that there are forms of the beings and will not distinguish a certain form of each single thing, wherever he turns he’ll understand nothing, since he does not allow that there is an ever-same idea for each of the beings. And so he will entirely destroy the power of dialogue. But you seem to me only too aware of this.”
“That’s the truth,” he replied.
Plato, Parmenides, 135b-c.
It appears evident that the ultimate ends of human actions can never, in any case, be accounted for by reason, but recommend themselves entirely to the sentiments and affections of mankind, without any dependence on the intellectual faculties. Ask a man why he uses exercise; he will answer, because he desires to keep his health. If you then enquire, why he desires health, he will readily reply, because sickness is painful. If you push your enquiries further, and desire a reason why he hates pain, it is impossible he can ever give any. This is an ultimate end, and is never referred to any other object. Perhaps to your second question, why he desires health, he may also reply, that it is necessary for the exercise of his calling. If you ask, why he is anxious on that head, he will answer, because he desires to get money. If you demand Why? It is the instrument of pleasure, says he. And beyond this it is an absurdity to ask for a reason. It is impossible there can be a progress in infinitum; and that one thing can always be a reason why another is desired. Something must be desirable on its own account.
David Hume,
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, 244.
Then Gārgī Vākaknavī asked. ‘Yāgñavalkya,’ she said, ‘everything here is woven, like warp and woof, in water. What then is that in which water is woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In air, O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then is air woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In the worlds of the sky, O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then are the worlds of the sky woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In the worlds of the Gandharvas, O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then are the worlds of the Gandharvas woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In the worlds of Āditya, O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then are the worlds of Āditya woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In the worlds of Kandra, O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then are the worlds of Kandra woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In the worlds of the Nakshatras, O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then are the worlds of the Nakshatras woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In the worlds of the Devas, O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then are the worlds of the Devas woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In the worlds of Indra, O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then are the worlds of Indra woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In the worlds of Pragāpati, O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then are the worlds of Pragāpati woven, like warp and woof?’
‘In the worlds of (The Ultimate), O Gārgī,’ he replied.
‘In what then are the worlds of (The Ultimate) woven, like warp and woof?’
Yāgñavalkya said: ‘O Gārgī, Do not ask too much, lest thy head should fall apart. Thou askest too much about a deity about which further questions cannot be asked. Do not ask too much, O Gārgī.’
After that Gārgī Vākaknavī held her peace.
Brihadāranyaka Upanishad, 3, 6.
It is folly to expect demonstration in everything. Whereby yet we may observe how foolish and vain a thing it is for a man of a narrow knowledge, who having reason given him to judge of the different evidence and probability of things, and to be swayed accordingly; how vain, I say, it is to expect demonstration and certainty in things not capable of it; and refuse assent to very rational propositions, and act contrary to very plain and clear truths, because they cannot be made out so evident, as to surmount every the least (I will not say reason, but) pretence of doubting. He that, in the ordinary affairs of life, would admit of nothing but direct plain demonstration would be sure of nothing in this world, but of perishing quickly. The wholesomeness of his meat or drink would not give him reason to venture on it: and I would fain know what it is he could do upon such grounds as are capable of no doubt, no objection.
John Locke,
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 4, 11, 10.
Why should not nature work, not for the sake of something, nor because it is better so, but just as the sky rains, not in order to make the corn grow, but of necessity? What is drawn up must cool, and what has been cooled must become water and descend, the result of this being that the corn grows. Similarly if a man's crop is spoiled on the threshing-floor, the rain did not fall for the sake of this-in order that the crop might be spoiled-but that result just followed. Why then should it not be the same with the parts in nature, e.g. that our teeth should come up of necessity-the front teeth sharp, fitted for tearing, the molars broad and useful for grinding down the food-since they did not arise for this end, but it was merely a coincident result; and so with all other parts in which we suppose that there is purpose? Wherever then all the parts came about just what they would have been if they had come be for an end, such things survived, being organized spontaneously in a fitting way; whereas those which grew otherwise perished and continue to perish, as Empedocles says his 'man-faced ox-progeny' did.
Aristotle, Physics, 2, 8, 2.
The Sun will not overstep his measures; otherwise the Erinyes, ministers of Justice, will find him out.
Heraclitus, attrib. [Plutarch, De exilio, 11, 604a.].
Meng Tzu said, 'That whereby man differs from the lower animals is but small. The mass of people cast it away, while superior men preserve it.’
Meng Tzu [Mencius], 4, b, 19.
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us.
Ecclesiastes, 1, 9-10.
PROBLEM
This is the way of the common people: once they have food in their belly and warm clothes on their back, they degenerate to the level of pigs.
Bellies!
Hesiod, Theogony, 27.
Now the mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts, but they get some ground for their view from the fact that many of those in high places share the tastes of Sardanapallus.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1095b20.
We risk becoming secure and self-absorbed last men, devoid of thymotic striving for higher goals in our pursuit of private comforts.
Francis Fukuyama,
The End of History and the Last Man, p.328.
A civilization that can succumb to its vanquished enemy must first have become so degenerate, that neither its appointed priests and teachers, nor anybody else, has the capacity, or will take the trouble, to stand up for it.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 4.
A body that used to confer commands, legions, rods, and everything else, has now narrowed its scope, and is eager for two things only: bread and circuses.
Juvenal, Satires, 10, 79-80.
And so the population was gradually led into the demoralizing temptations of arcades, baths, and sumptuous banquets. The unsuspecting Britons spoke of such novelties as ‘civilization’, when in fact they were only a feature of their enslavement.
Tacitus, Agricola, 21.
If you indulge their intemperance by plying them with as many intoxicants as they desire, they will be as easily conquered by this besetting weakness as by force of arms.
Tacitus, Germania, 23.
She drugged the wine with an herb that banishes all care, sorrow, and ill humour. Whoever drinks wine thus drugged cannot shed a single tear all the rest of the day, not even though his father and mother both of them drop down dead, or he sees a brother or a son hewn in pieces before his very eyes.
Odyssey, 4, 220-226.
The evil is perhaps gone too far to be remedied [1798], but I feel little doubt in my own mind that if the poor laws had never existed, though there might have been a few more instances of very severe distress, yet that the aggregate mass of happiness among the people would have been much greater than it is at present.
Thomas Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population, 5, 3.
For ‘slave-trade’ read ‘labour market’.
Karl Marx, Capital, 1, 10, 5.
The only difference as compared with the old, outspoken slavery is this, that the employee of today seems to be free, because he is not sold once for all, but piecemeal by the day, the week, the year, and because no one owner sells him to another, but he is forced to sell himself in this way instead, being the slave of no particular person, … For him the matter is unchanged at bottom, and if this semblance of liberty necessarily gives him some real freedom on the one hand, it entails on the other the disadvantage that no one guarantees him a subsistence, he is in danger of being repudiated at any moment by his master, … The [master], on the other hand, is far better off under the present arrangement than under the old slave system; [he] can dismiss [his] employees at discretion without sacrificing invested capital, and gets [his] work done much more cheaply than is possible with slave labour, as Adam Smith comfortingly pointed out.
Friedrich Engels,
The Condition of the Working Class in England, 3.
The proletariat which capitalism can be said to have “created” was not a proportion of the population which would have existed without it and which it had degraded to a lower level; it was an additional population which was enabled to grow up by the new opportunities for employment which capitalism had provided. In so far as it is true that the growth of capital made the appearance of the proletariat possible, it was in the sense that it raised the productivity of labour so that much larger numbers of those who had not been equipped by their parents with the necessary tools were enabled to maintain themselves by their labour alone.
F. A. Hayek (ed),
Capitalism and the Historians, “History and Politics”, p.16.
The capitalist can live longer without the worker than can the worker without the capitalist.
Karl Marx,
“Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844”, 1, 1.
The very best thing of all would be that the husbandmen should be slaves taken from among men who are not all of the same race and not spirited, for if they have no spirit they will be better suited for their work, and there will be no danger of their making a revolution. The next best thing would be that they should be Perioeci of foreign race, and of a like inferior nature; some of them should be the slaves of individuals, and employed in the private estates of men of property, the remainder should be the property of the state and employed on the common land. I will hereafter explain what is the proper treatment of slaves, and why it is expedient that liberty should be always held out to them as the reward of their services.
Aristotle, Politics, 1330a25-33.
Another cause of constitutional change or of revolution is difference of peoples which do not acquire a common spirit; for a state is not the growth of a day, any more than it grows out of a multitude brought together by accident. Hence the reception of strangers in colonies, either at the time of their foundation or afterwards, has generally produced revolution; for example, the Achaeans who joined the Troezenians in the foundation of Sybaris, becoming later the more numerous, expelled them; hence the curse fell upon Sybaris. At Thurii the Sybarites quarrelled with their fellow-colonists; thinking that the land belonged to them, they wanted too much of it and were driven out. At Byzantium the new colonists were detected in a conspiracy, and were expelled by force of arms; the people of Antissa, who had received the Chian exiles, fought with them, and drove them out; and the Zancleans, after having received the Samians, were driven by them out of their own city. The citizens of Apollonia on the Euxine, after the introduction of a fresh body of colonists, had a revolution; the Syracusans, after the expulsion of their tyrants, having admitted strangers and mercenaries to the rights of citizenship, quarrelled and came to blows; the people of Amphipolis, having received Chalcidian colonists, were nearly all expelled by them.
Aristotle, Politics, 1303a25-b3.
We make a nation of Helots, and have no free citizens.
Adam Ferguson, History of Civil Society, 4, 2.
Life is a fountain of delight; but where the rabble also drinks all wells are poisoned.
I love all that is clean; but I do not like to see the grinning mouths and the thirst of the unclean.
They cast their eyes down into the well: now their repulsive smile glitters up to me out of the well.
They have poisoned the holy water with their lasciviousness; and when they call their dirty dreams ‘delight’ they poisoned even the words, too.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 2, 6.
I observe that when we are met together in the assembly, and the matter in hand relates to building, the builders are summoned as advisers; when the question is one of shipbuilding, then the shipwrights; and the like of other arts which they think capable of being taught and learned. And if some person offers to give them advice who is not supposed by them to have any skill in the art, even though he be good-looking, and rich, and noble, they will not listen to him, but laugh and hoot at him, until either he is clamoured down and retires of himself; or if he persist, he is dragged away or put out by the constables at the command of the Prytanes. This is their way of behaving about professors of the arts. But when the question is an affair of state, then everybody is free to have a say - carpenter, tinker, cobbler, sailor, passenger; rich and poor, high and low - any one who likes gets up, and no one reproaches him, as in the former case, with not having learned, and having no teacher, and yet giving advice.
Plato, Protagoras, 319b-d.
‘They must have a relish-salt, and olives, and cheese, and they will boil roots and herbs such as country people prepare; for a dessert we shall give them figs, and peas, and beans; and they will roast myrtle-berries and acorns at the fire, drinking in moderation. And with such a diet they may be expected to live in peace and health to a good old age, and bequeath a similar life to their children after them’
‘Yes, Socrates,’ he said, ‘and if you were providing for a city of pigs, how else would you feed the beasts?’
Plato, Republic, 372c-d.
‘But why, my dear Crito, should we care about the opinion of the many? Good men, and they are the only persons who are worth considering, will think of these things truly as they happened.’
‘But do you see, Socrates, that the opinion of the many must be regarded, as is evident in your own case, because they can do the very greatest evil to anyone who has lost their good opinion?’
‘I only wish, Crito, that they could; for then they could also do the greatest good, and that would be well. But the truth is, that they can do neither good nor evil: they cannot make a man wise or make him foolish; and whatever they do is the result of chance.’
Plato, Crito, 43c – 44a.
When I say that all men have a mind which cannot bear to see the sufferings of others, my meaning may be illustrated thus:-- even now-a-days, if men suddenly see a child about to fall into a well, they will without exception experience a feeling of alarm and distress. They will feel so, not as a ground on which they may gain the favour of the child's parents, nor as a ground on which they may seek the praise of their neighbours and friends, nor from a dislike to the reputation of having been unmoved by such a thing.
From this case we may perceive that the feeling of commiseration is essential to man, that the feeling of shame and dislike is essential to man, that the feeling of modesty and complaisance is essential to man, and that the feeling of approving and disapproving is essential to man.
Meng tzu [Mencius], 2, a, 6.
It is a mark of the noble man also to ask for nothing or scarcely anything, but to give help readily, and to be dignified towards people who enjoy high position and good fortune, but unassuming towards those of the middle class; for it is a difficult and lofty thing to be superior to the former, but easy to be so to the latter, and a lofty bearing over the former is no mark of ill-breeding, but among humble people it is as vulgar as a display of strength against the weak.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1124b18-25.
A crowd of ills, sweep on me torrent-like. My bark goes forth upon a sea of troubles Unfathomed, ill to traverse, harbourless. For if my deed shall match not your demand, Dire, beyond shot of speech, shall be the bane Your death's pollution leaves unto this land. Yet if against your kin, Aegyptus' breed, Before our gates I front the doom of war, Will not the city's loss be sore? Shall men For women's sake incarnadine the ground? But yet the wrath of Zeus, the suppliants' lord, I needs must fear: most awful unto man The terror of his anger. Thou, old man, The father of these maidens, gather up Within your arms these wands of suppliance, And lay them at the altars manifold Of all our country's gods, that all the town Know, by this sign, that ye come here to sue. Nor, in thy haste, do thou say aught of me. Swift is this folk to censure those who rule; But, if they see these signs of suppliance, It well may chance that each will pity you, And loathe the young men's violent pursuit; And thus a fairer favour you may find: For, to the helpless, each man's heart is kind.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, 476-488.
Christianity is called the religion of pity.-- Pity stands in opposition to all the tonic passions that augment the energy of the feeling of aliveness: it is a depressant. A man loses power when he pities. Through pity that drain upon strength which suffering works is multiplied a thousandfold. Suffering is made contagious by pity; under certain circumstances it may lead to a total sacrifice of life and living energy--a loss out of all proportion to the magnitude of the cause (--the case of the death of the Nazarene). This is the first view of it; there is, however, a still more important one. If one measures the effects of pity by the gravity of the reactions it sets up, its character as a menace to life appears in a much clearer light. Pity thwarts the whole law of development, which is the law of selection. It preserves whatever is ripe for destruction; it fights on the side of those disinherited and condemned by life; by maintaining life in so many of the botched of all kinds, it gives life itself a gloomy and dubious aspect. Mankind has ventured to call pity a virtue (--in every superior moral system it appears as a weakness--); going still further, it has been called the virtue, the source and foundation of all other virtues--but let us always bear in mind that this was from the standpoint of a philosophy that was nihilistic, and upon whose shield the denial of life was inscribed.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, 7.
For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Isaiah, 2, 11-17.
In the market-place no one believes in Higher Men. And if you want to speak there, very well, do so! But the mob blink and say: ‘We are all equal.’
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 4, 13, 1.
The inclination to deprecate himself, to let himself be robbed, lied to, and taken advantage of, could be the modesty of a god among men.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 66.
He who ascends to mountain tops, shall find the loftiest peaks most wrapped in clouds and snow; He who surpasses or subdues mankind, must look down on the hate of those below.
Byron, Child Harold’s Pilgrimage, 3, 45.
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Luke, 14, 11.
And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not,
And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten to the full.
Deuteronomy, 6, 10-11.
When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
Deuteronomy, 20, 10-11.
And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.
The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire.
Deuteronomy, 7, 22-25.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand
Glows world wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbour that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus.
The experience of suffering wrong does not happen to anyone who calls himself a man; it happens to a slave who had better die than live, seeing that when he is wronged and insulted he cannot defend himself or anyone else for whom he cares. Conventions… are made, in my opinion, by the weaklings who form the majority of mankind. They establish them and apportion praise and blame with an eye to themselves and their own interests, and in an endeavour to frighten those who are stronger and capable of getting the upper hand they say that ambition is base and wrong, and that wrong-doing consists in trying to gain an advantage over others; being inferior to themselves, they are content, no doubt, if they can stand on an equal footing with their betters.
Plato, Gorgias, 483.
Meng Tzu said, 'Shun rose from among the channelled fields. Fû Yüeh was called to office from the midst of his building frames; Chiâo-ko from his fish and salt; Kwan Î-wû from the hands of his gaoler; Sun-shû Âo from his hiding by the sea-shore; and Pâi-lî Hsî from the market-place.
'Thus, when Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.
'Men for the most part err, and are afterwards able to reform. They are distressed in mind and perplexed in their thoughts, and then they arise to vigorous reformation. When things have been evidenced in men's looks, and set forth in their words, then they understand them.
'If a prince have not about his court families attached to the laws and worthy counsellors, and if abroad there are not hostile States or other external calamities, his kingdom will generally come to ruin.
'From these things we see how life springs from sorrow and calamity, and death from ease and pleasure.'
Meng Tzu [Mencius], 6, b, 15.
It shows great folly – as well as ignorance of the pronouncement of Ammon – to suppose that one can transmit or acquire clear and certain knowledge of an art through the medium of writing, or that written words can do more than remind the reader of what he already knows on any given subject…
Writing involves a similar disadvantage to painting. The productions of painting look like living beings, but if you ask them a question they maintain a solemn silence. The same holds true of written words; you may suppose that they understand what they are saying, but if you ask them what they mean by anything they simply return the same answer over and over again. Besides, once a thing is committed to writing it circulates equally among those who understand the subject and those who have no business with it; writing cannot distinguish between suitable and unsuitable readers. And if it is ill-treated or unfairly abused it always needs a parent to come to its rescue; it is quite incapable of defending or helping itself…
Plato, Phaedrus, 271-275.
SOLUTION
Cleio and Euterpe,
Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore,
And Erato and Polyhymnia and Urania.
And Calliope, who is the chiefest of them all,
For she attends on worshipful princes:
Whomever of heaven-nourished princes the daughters of great Zeus honour
And behold at his birth,
They pour sweet dew upon his tongue,
And from his lips flow gracious words.
All the people look towards him while he settles causes with true judgements:
And he, speaking surely, would soon make wise end even of a great quarrel;
For therefore are there princes wise in heart,
Because when the people are being misguided in their assembly,
They set right the matter again with ease, persuading them with gentle words.
And when he passes through a gathering, they greet him as a god with gentle reverence,
And he is conspicuous amongst the assembled:
Such is the holy gift of the Muses to men.
Hesiod, Theogony, 78-94.
‘Let us suppose the following case, Sâriputra. In a certain village, town, borough, province, kingdom, or capital, there was a certain housekeeper, old, aged, decrepit, very advanced in years, rich, wealthy, opulent; he had a great house, high, spacious, built a long time ago and old, inhabited by some two, three, four, or five hundred living beings. The house had but one door, and a thatch; its terraces were tottering, the bases of its pillars rotten, the coverings and plaster of the walls loose. On a sudden the whole house was from every side put in conflagration by a mass of fire. Let us suppose that the man had many little boys, say five, or ten, or even twenty, and that he himself had come out of the house.
‘Now, Sâriputra, that man, on seeing the house from every side wrapt in a blaze by a great mass of fire, got afraid, frightened, anxious in his mind, and made the following reflection: I myself am able to come out from the burning house through the door, quickly and safely, without being touched or scorched by that great mass of fire; but my children, those young boys, are staying in the burning house, playing, amusing, and diverting themselves with all sorts of sports. They do not perceive, nor know, nor understand, nor mind that the house is on fire, and do not get afraid. Though scorched by that great mass of fire, and affected with such a mass of pain, they do not mind the pain, nor do they conceive the idea of escaping.
‘The man, Sâriputra, is strong, has powerful arms, and (so) he makes this reflection: I am strong, and have powerful arms; why, let me gather all my little boys and take them to my breast to effect their escape from the house. A second reflection then presented itself to his mind: This house has but one opening; the door is shut; and those boys, fickle, unsteady, and childlike as they are, will, it is to be feared, run hither and thither, and come to grief and disaster in this mass of fire. Therefore I will warn them. So resolved, he calls to the boys: Come, my children; the house is burning with a mass of fire; come, lest ye be burnt in that mass of fire, and come to grief and disaster. But the ignorant boys do not heed the words of him who is their well-wisher; they are not afraid, not alarmed, and feel no misgiving; they do not care, nor fly, nor even know nor understand the purport of the word 'burning;' on the contrary, they run hither and thither, walk about, and repeatedly look at their father; all, because they are so ignorant.
‘Then the man is going to reflect thus: The house is burning, is blazing by a mass of fire. It is to be feared that myself as well as my children will come to grief and disaster. Let me therefore by some skilful means get the boys out of the house. The man knows the disposition of the boys, and has a clear perception of their inclinations. Now these boys happen to have many and manifold toys to play with, pretty, nice, pleasant, dear, amusing, and precious. The man, knowing the disposition of the boys, says to them: My children, your toys, which are so pretty, precious, and admirable, which you are so loath to miss, which are so various and multifarious, (such as) bullock-carts, goat-carts, deer-carts, which are so pretty, nice, dear, and precious to you, have all been put by me outside the house-door for you to play with. Come, run out, leave the house; to each of you I shall give what he wants. Come soon; come out for the sake of these toys. And the boys, on hearing the names mentioned of such playthings as they like and desire, so agreeable to their taste, so pretty, dear, and delightful, quickly rush out from the burning house, with eager effort and great alacrity, one having no time to wait for the other, and pushing each other on with the cry of “Who shall arrive first, the very first?”
‘The man, seeing that his children have safely and happily escaped, and knowing that they are free from danger, goes and sits down in the open air on the square of the village, his heart filled with joy and delight, released from trouble and hindrance, quite at ease. The boys go up to the place where their father is sitting, and say: “Father, give us those toys to play with, those bullock-carts, goat-carts, and deer-carts.” Then, Sâriputra, the man gives to his sons, who run swift as the wind, bullock-carts only, made of seven precious substances, provided with benches, hung with a multitude of small bells, lofty, adorned with rare and wonderful jewels, embellished with jewel wreaths, decorated with garlands of flowers, carpeted with cotton mattresses and woollen coverlets, covered with white cloth and silk, having on both sides rosy cushions, yoked with white, very fair and fleet bullocks, led by a multitude of men. To each of his children he gives several bullockcarts of one appearance and one kind, provided with flags, and swift as the wind. That man does so, Sâriputra, because being rich, wealthy, and in possession of many treasures and granaries, he rightly thinks: Why should I give these boys inferior carts, all these boys being my own children, dear and precious? I have got such great vehicles, and ought to treat all the boys equally and without partiality. As I own many treasures and granaries, I could give such great vehicles to all beings, how much more then to my own children. Meanwhile the boys are mounting the vehicles with feelings of astonishment and wonder. Now, Sâriputra, what is thy opinion? Has that man made himself guilty of a falsehood by first holding out to his children the prospect of three vehicles and afterwards giving to each of them the greatest vehicles only, the most magnificent vehicles?’
Sâriputra answered:
‘By no means, Lord; by no means, Sugata. That is not sufficient, O Lord, to qualify the man as a speaker of falsehood, since it only was a skilful device to persuade his children to go out of the burning house and save their lives. Nay, besides recovering their very body, O Lord, they have received all those toys. If that man, O Lord, had given no single cart, even then he would not have been a speaker of falsehood, for he had previously been meditating on saving the little boys from a great mass of pain by some able device. Even in this case, O Lord, the man would not have been guilty of falsehood, and far less now that he, considering his having plenty of treasures and prompted by no other motive but the love of his children, gives to all, to coax them, vehicles of one kind, and those the greatest vehicles. That man, Lord, is not guilty of falsehood.’
Saddharmapundarīkasūtra [Lotus Sutra], 3.
The teaching and the doctrine of the Buddhas is based upon two truths: truth relating to worldly convention and truth in terms of ultimate fruit... Without relying upon convention, the ultimate fruit is not taught. Without understanding the ultimate fruit, freedom is not attained.
Nāgārjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, 24, 8-10.
When a human being dreads nothing more than to find, on self-examination, that he is worthless and contemptible in his own eyes, then every good moral disposition can be cultivated, because this is the best, and indeed the sole, guard to prevent ignoble and corrupting impulses from breaking into the mind.
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, 2.
He tortured himself. He practiced austerity. When he had tortured himself and practiced austerity, glory and vigour went forth.
Brihadāranyaka Upanishad, 1, 2, 6.
But sex is perhaps more effective than mathematics when it comes to persuading or driving people to do anything.
Plato, Republic, 458d.
It is the nature of women to seduce men in this world; for that reason the wise are never unguarded in the company of females.
For women are able to lead astray in this world not only a fool, but even a learned man, and to make him a slave of desire and anger.
Mānavadharmaśāstra [Laws of Manu], 2, 213-214.
It stands on record that armies already wavering and on the point of collapse have been rallied by their women, pleading heroically with their men, exposing their breasts, and making them realise the imminent prospect of enslavement.
Tacitus, Germania, 8.
And Aphrodite bore to shield-piercing Ares Phobos and Deimos: Fear and Terror. Gods who with pillaging Ares rout massed ranks of soldiers in icy war.
Hesiod, Theogony, 939-942.
If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have been changed.
Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 8, 29.
ANOTHER LEVEL
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