I was having a chat with some friends recently about some aspects of life. It gave me the opportunity to express my thoughts on one or two subjects. Let me tell you more about it.
Continue readingMy Own Ten Commandments
A Passage From Plutarch’s “Life of Timoleon”
Here is a morsel to chew on.
I was reading a bit of Plutarch this morning and came across a passage that is worth sharing. It is from the Life of Timoleon (6):
Aldus Manutius: The First Great Publisher In History
We take so much for granted today about printed books. The wisdom of the ages can be captured and preserved for costs that are so low as to almost negligible. Save for the surfeit of information that currently exists, the modern man has no excuse not to be reasonably acquainted with his heritage.
It was not always so. Before the advent of the printing press, books circulated in manuscript form. They had to be copied by hand, and this was laborious and costly. In the ancient world, manuscript books were relatively cheap and plentiful; but papyrus became unavailable from Egypt during the Middle Ages, leaving expensive vellum as the only available medium for “mass” writing.
Stoic Paradoxes Is Now Available
My third book, Stoic Paradoxes, is now available on Amazon.
It is offered in both Kindle edition and in paperback. Click on the cover image above.
I wanted to use this post to explain what the book is about, and why it is an important addition to the literature on Stoicism.
The Luckiest Man On The Face Of The Earth
I have a close friend who knows a great deal about the game of baseball. I always defer to his knowledge in discussions of the sport. We were recently talking about the relative merits of modern ball players when compared to the great figures of earlier generations. It is a debate that has no end, of course, but it is still entertaining.
Jack London Sails Across The Pacific
Readers no doubt are familiar with Jack London. One of the great 20th century American novelists and short-story writers, he is justly famous for his harrowing tales of survival and courage, often set in exotic locales like the Klondike, the South Seas, and the abysses of urban squalor.
He lived a life that was as adventurous as one of the characters in his stories. Before becoming a full-time writer, he had knocked about as a vagrant, an oyster pirate, a seaman, a gold prospector, and most bitterly as an industrial slave-laborer.
Simon Murray: Legionnaire
I have recently finished reading Simon Murray’s memoir of his life in the French Foreign Legion, which is titled simply Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion. First published in 1978, it was recently reissued in 2006 as a mass market paperback.
Justinian’s Codification Of The Law
Great men make laws, and greater men interpret them.
If a leader wishes to achieve immortality, let him organize, arrange, and codify a body of law for his people. Many of the greatest leaders (Numa Pompilia, Lycurgus, Solon, etc.) have been lawgivers. The monuments of stone have crumbled, but the laws remain.
To codify is to bestow immortality.
The Importance Of Linguistic Nationalism
I read this weekend an article in the BBC that I interpreted as a good thing. The article was discussing a recent decision of Pakistan’s Supreme Court to replace English with Urdu as the official language.
I should say at the outset here that I have never been to Pakistan and know nothing about its languages. So why was I happy to see the Pakistan elevate Urdu as the official language? This is the reason: it shows that the dominance of English can be challenged.
How A Rogue Can Take Over A Village
I was talking to a friend earlier today, and the conversation happened to be diverted into the topic of hucksters, pitch-men, and carnival-barkers.
After thinking about the conversation, my mind wandered off to some of the late-night “pitch-man” advertising I had seen years ago.
Quintus Curtius 
You must be logged in to post a comment.