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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.
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Good Facts Are Not Enough: The Material Requirements Of Victory
By trade, I am a practicing attorney and a partner in a law firm. In my fifteen year legal career, I have tried a large number of criminal cases in federal and state courts. I have also litigated an equally large number of complex business and consumer bankruptcy matters in federal bankruptcy courts. This background,…
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Cicero’s Four Cardinal Virtues
According to Cicero, the sources of moral righteousness are four in number (De Officiis I.15): 1. The perception and intelligent development of truth (In perspicientia veri sollertiaque versatur); 2. The preservation of civil society, with the faithful rendering to everyone what he is properly owed (In hominum societate tuenda tribuendoque suum cuique et rerum contractarum…
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The Dark Themes Of Film Noir, And Why They Matter Today
In the 1940s and 1950s, a new genre of film began to filter out of Hollywood. It was a hard-bitten, cynical genre, dealing with themes that movies had not dealt with before. It’s often said that jazz is the only truly unique American art form. This is not exactly true. Film noir is a cinematic…
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Titans Of Arabian Exploration
(To find the book, click on the image above) This week I will consider one of the titans of Arabian exploration, Wilfred Thesiger. You can click here to read the article. Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003) may be considered the last of the great English adventurer-explorers of the Orient in the tradition of many such characters from…
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Shattering The Old Paradigms
There are times when existing methods of explaining phenomena prove themselves to be inadequate. What is then required is for some brave soul to step forward, smash the old idols, and propose new ones. The act is a singular one, requiring courage and an independent will. These virtues, of course, are not found in abundance…
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Horace’s Prophecy
(To find the book, click on the image above) I came across a startling prophecy in Horace (Odes 16): Altera iam teritur bellis civilibus aetas, suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit …. Impia perdemus devoti sanguinis aetas, ferisque rursus occupabitur solum. Barbarus heu cineres insistet victor et Urbem eques sonante verberabit ungula… I render…
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On Conflict
What is the nature and purpose of conflict, and how may it be dealt with? These are questions that have been considered by many through the centuries. And rightly so, as conflict–in which I include war as well as any other clash of wills–is at the core of existence. Whether we speak of Nature or…
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On Detractors
The poet Naevius noted that “mortal man is forced to endure many evils.” (Pati necesse est multa mortalem mala, as quoted in St. Jerome’s Epistulae, LX.14). Few would dispute this sentence. One of these evils is the attack of the detractor. Anyone who has become noted in a field of endeavor will at some point embolden…
Original copy of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties) published in Holland in 1642. From the collection of Fortress of the Mind.
Quintus Curtius 
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