You can find a complete listing of all the articles on this site here. They are listed in reverse chronological order, and are all clickable links. Twenty-five articles are displayed per page, with the publication date included. To find older articles, click on the page numbers at the bottom.
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How Two Readers Started Their Own Manufacturing Business
I enjoy receiving email from readers that describes how they overcame their challenges and personal difficulties. Sometimes readers also share their inspirational stories. I recently received some correspondence from a reader who described how he and a friend turned a lifelong passion into an actual business, and thought it would be something of general interest…
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Celsus’s General Directives For Good Health
The most famous book of Roman medicine was the work entitled De medicina; the author’s full name was most likely Aulus Cornelius Celsus, and tradition has shortened this mouthful simply to Celsus. We know almost nothing of his life. The rhetorician Quintilian describes him as a learned man writing on a variety of subjects, including…
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Philology Is A Weapon
Philology is the study of language as it is found in written historical sources. Words are dense repositories of historical information. Languages and inflections change subtly in morphology and syntax with the passing of years, and by being attuned to these changes, we can learn a great deal. Any native speaker of a language can…
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The Rise And Fall Of Empires: Ibn Khaldun’s Theory Of Social Development
The most remarkable figure in medieval historiography was Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun; his name in Arabic is أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي, but this is mercifully shortened to us simply as Ibn Khaldun. He was an urbane and well-traveled figure, whose life experiences taught him intimate lessons on both rulers and…
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U.S. Grant’s Most Personal Victory
My article this week at Return Of Kings focuses on the little-known but inspiring story of Ulysses S. Grant’s race against the Reaper to complete his memoirs. I became familiar with the story after listening to the audiobook Grant’s Final Victory by Charles B. Flood, which outlines the drama in detail. Grant left the presidency in…
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On Whether It Is Better To Criticize, Or To Remain Silent
The great Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457) took great pride in his constant need to attack his forebearers, as well as his contemporaries. Few escaped the wrathful attentions of his pen. Yet Valla saw himself as an upholder of the classical virtues, and for him, criticism was a form of moral duty. He said in…
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Samuel B. Griffith: Warrior And Scholar
One of the more remarkable military men of recent history was Samuel B. Griffith (1906-1983). Born in Lewiston, Pennsylvania, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. From 1931 to 1933, he served in Nicaragua with the American forces aiding that country’s Guardia…
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The Practical Wisdom Of Thomas A Kempis
One of the most enlightening yet now underappreciated books of “personal improvement” is a small volume entitled The Imitation of Christ. It was written by an obscure cleric named Thomas a Kempis in the late medieval period in Germany. His name has various spellings, among them Thomas Von Kempen and Thomas Haemerkken.
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The Worst Weapon Ever Made
The greed and callousness of combat weapons designers have resulted in the deaths of many men. Nowhere else has this fact been more starkly portrayed than in the story of what may be the worst small arm ever made, the Chauchat (also called the Fusil-Mitrailleur mle 1915, or the CSRG). It was a French light…
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Invective Has A Distinguished Lineage
Acquaintance with the ancient art of invective reminds us just how hypersensitive today’s reading audience can be. We often hear tiresome complaints from some quarters about how some article or other on the internet “triggered” someone, or how some author is a “horrible person” for upsetting someone’s serenity. It was not always so. Invective and…
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The Traits Needed For Progress In Mystical Studies
In Pantheon, we devoted a chapter (“The Heart Of Plotinus”) to the foundational text of Western mysticism, Plotinus’s Enneads. That text made it clear that every man possesses within himself the capacity for special knowledge of the world; and every man has the potential for awareness of things outside the realm of accepted cognition. Some…
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How Character Can Change According To Circumstances
It may be asked how a man’s character changes according to his circumstances. Without doubt it does change; there remains an unalterable core of our character, fashioned from our earliest years, but onto this trunk may be grafted or discarded a variety of traits and habits. On this subject we should be mindful of the…
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On Why Some Negative Gossip Can Be A Benefit
Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades is rich in anecdote. One such anecdote (Alcidiades 9) relates how the great statesman, who lived from 450 to 404 B.C., used a minor transgression to his advantage. He was said to have owned a large and attractive dog, which cost him a significant sum of money. Alcibiades then proceeded to…
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Are Omens Real?
The ancient historians would often mention portents, oracles, augurs, and omens. The ancients like to interpret events by various such means: observing the flight of birds (the Romans loved this ), or the entrails of sacrificed animals, or nearly any unusual phenomenon that happened to present itself. It is not always clear how we should…
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You Will Carry Burdens
I was re-reading Plutarch’s Life of Pericles over the past few days. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that the best solace is always to keep company with the greatest of men; for in doing so we cannot help but become greater. We should be careful with whom we spend out…
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How To Gain Your Boss’s Appreciation
A lot has been written about how to be an entrepreneur. A lot has been written about how to innovate. Not as much has been written about how to be a good employee. Being a good team-player is not glamorous. Being a good team player is not what receives all the attention. But it is…
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Fury Is Good
A few days ago I had a chance to see Sylvester Stallone’s 2008 remake of his 1980s film Rambo. It was two hours of mindless violence, and I loved every minute of it. Few actors throw themselves into the action as fearlessly as does Stallone. He’s in his 60s now, and he’s as pumped up…
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Pantheon Is Now Available
(Click on the cover image above for purchase information). My second book, Pantheon, is now available. You can find out all the specific details on the book and its contents by clicking on the “books” tab in this website’s home page, and then selecting “Pantheon.” It is offered in both paperback and in Kindle reader. What is…
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Countdown To Pantheon
My second book, Pantheon, is on schedule to be released this week. It is the culmination of a great deal of effort on my part. I have forged the sword. It is now for you to grasp the pommel. Pantheon is a longer (35% longer, to be precise), more complex, and more textured work than…
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On Why Too Much Attention To Pets Is Unwholesome Vanity
Plutarch relates a story at the beginning of his Life of Pericles. He tells us that the emperor Augustus, on one of his frequent forays into Rome to mingle with the people, once caught sight of some foreigners making merry with some small monkeys and puppies. They were carrying the animals here and there on…
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Anthony Swofford’s Memoir “Hotels, Hospitals, And Jails”
I like to listen to audiobooks in my car. A few years ago I made the decision that listening to the news was just too much like drinking hemlock, day in and day out. I couldn’t handle the constant negativity, the snippets of bullshit that are designed to confirm the prejudices of the listener, and…
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The Consolation Of The Natural World
Seneca’s Natural Questions (Quaestiones Naturales) is an oddity of philosophical literature. It does not fit into any neatly defined category, and stands nearly alone in its blend of science and speculative philosophy. Perhaps “science” is not quite the correct word. Our philosopher makes no experiments, and attempts no generalized scientific conclusions. He is more concerned with…
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The Three Types Of Travel Writing, And Their Uses
Travel writing is a popular genre. We live in an age of travel, where it is easy to plan a sojourn to the most remote of locations. Most people today hardly give a thought to the fact that their routine international destinations of travel were, until very recently, accessible only by ship or overland travel.…
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Dealing With Grief, And Providing Comfort
Cicero believed that there were four “disorders” of the soul: delight, lust, distress, and fear (Tusc. Disp. IV.12-15). He believed that all of these disorders were the products of either some judgment, or some belief. In other words, we ourselves create the conditions for these disorders, by our own flawed judgments or erroneous beliefs. And…
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The Need For Adventure
Adventure activates the imagination, and kindles the fires of creativity. Experiences intensely lived–even vicariously–have a way of forcing the mind into new patterns; they slash through the tangled undergrowth of our overgrown routines. The masculine soul has a deep need for adventure, conquest, and the plunge into the unknown.
Original copy of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties) published in Holland in 1642. From the collection of Fortress of the Mind.
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