Month: July 2020

The Gravitation Of Noble Souls

Quintus Curtius Thought , , , ,

In one of his letters to his brother Quintus, Marcus Tullius Cicero makes the following observation:

The more virtuous a man is, the less he considers others to be evil.  [Letters to Quintus I.4.12]

The idea is the same as that expressed in an old Korean proverb, which I remember from my residence in that country many years ago:  “In the eyes of a Buddha, everything is Buddha-like; but to a pig’s eyes, everything appears piggish.”  The proverb sounds much more beautiful, of course, in the original Korean; but the point remains valid.  A great spirit—a soul imbued with a certain nobility—finds it difficult to comprehend, or accept, venality and baseness displayed by others.  Such a man can be trained to recognize and avoid these things, but they will always retain an air of incomprehensibility to him, as if they were fundamentally anathema to his soul.  Why is this?

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The Wisdom Of Ibn Abd Al-Barr Of Spain

Quintus Curtius Thought , , ,

The Iberian peninsula’s uniqueness derives from the fact that its shores have been washed by successive cultural waves:  Roman, Gothic, Arab, and then indigenous Christian.  No other region of Europe has acted as a similar crossroad, or has stimulated a comparable fermentation.  Each of these civilizational tides altered the terrain as it flowed in, and then receded.  We now turn, once again, to the world of medieval Arabic scholarship, and attempt to pry open its chests of mysterious treasures.

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The G Manifesto Tweet Readings: Herd Immunity Edition

Quintus Curtius Podcast , ,

We’re back, and pushing for herd immunity!  It’s July 14, 2020.  And here is the latest installment of the authorized G Manifesto (Twitter: @MichaelPorfirio) tweet readings.
The only authorized readings, mind you.

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Acute Vision For Others, Feeble Sight For Ourselves

Quintus Curtius Thought , , ,

I recall reading somewhere that both Archimedes and the mathematician Leonhard Euler never liked to explain how they arrived at their discoveries.  They took care to remove all the scaffolding before presenting their magnificent edifices to posterity; we saw the finished product, but not the arduous labor that was necessary to create it.  This may be an exaggeration, at least in the case of Archimedes, whose lost Method was finally unearthed in Istanbul in 1906; but I think the point is sufficiently true, for enough famous names, to merit some reflection.

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Thoughts On “Apocalypse Now” (Podcast)

Quintus Curtius Podcast , , , ,

In this podcast we discuss the movie “Apocalypse Now” (1979).  We deal with the problematic shooting of the film, the choices of actors, and aspects of the script.  We then explore the movie’s major themes.

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The Travels Of Benjamin Of Tudela

Quintus Curtius Biography, Travel & Exploration , , ,

The motivations of intrepid travelers are not difficult to discern.  The desire to get out, to get away from everything that reeks of contemptible familiarity, to smash through obstacles and barriers both mental and physical, to be confronted with stimuli both terrifying and strange:  these would be primary impulses.  Following close behind them would be a thirst to seek one’s fortune, to take a certain measure of the world and its people, and to test one’s mettle against the mettlesome natures of others.  It has been so for centuries.

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