A reader asks a question I’ve never heard before: “How should I pray?” Although it’s not an easy question to answer, I offer some thoughts and suggestions that relate to these points:
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The Vase Of Hormuzan
In Gibbon’s history (Ch. 51), there is an anecdote related to the Arab military campaigns in Persia in A.D. 639 to 640. It concerns a nobleman named Hormuzan, who was, we are told, “a prince or satrap of Ahwaz and Susa.” Modern historians have identified him as the governor of Khuzestan, and one of the Persian military officers during the famous Battle of Qadisiyya in A.D. 636. Gibbon apparently extracted this story from the historical writings of Al Tabari or Al Masudi.
Continue readingSoft Sentiments And External Warnings Are The Opponents Of Great Plans
In a letter to Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV in 1361, the scholar Petrarch included the following lines of advice:
Continue readingThere Is No Place Which Armed Ambition And Avarice Cannot Reach
The Italian scholar Petrarch spent a significant period of time in southeastern France as a boy and a young man. In 1311, when he was seven years old, he moved to Avignon with his family; in 1312, he moved to the small town of Carpentras and remained there until 1316. During other periods of his life from the 1330s to the 1350s, he chose to reside in what is now the French department of Vaucluse.
Continue readingAnger Does Not Look Ahead
Of all the emotions that palpitate the breast of man, none is so potentially destructive as anger. It comes in many flavors and varieties; but the common thread running through all of them is a ruinous loss of control that renders a man incapable of exercising rational judgment.
Continue readingSome Points On Reading And Understanding The Ancient Historians
Anyone who has bothered to open the works of ancient Greek and Roman historians will notice marked differences between them and modern historians. The differences are not trivial. In how they express themselves, in what they emphasize or ignore, in how they view their responsibilities, and in various other ways, the ancients are simply different. There is no getting around this fact. I wanted to use this essay to suggest some ways of understanding the ancient historians; and if informed readers wince at my gross generalizations and oversimplifications, I make no apologies. Judgmental economy has its uses.
Continue readingDo Things Stay Professional, Or Do They Get Personal? (Podcast)
I receive an email asking about the personal and professional aspects of litigation. Do things stay professional, or can things get personal? I offer some thoughts and comments from the trenches of the legal world.
Continue readingThe Greatest Movies Of The 1990s
The 1990s is in some ways a unique decade. Sandwiched between the last gasp of Cold War mania (the 1980s) and the global “war on terror” (the early 2000s), it was a time of relative peace and prosperity. The internet had not yet permeated every facet of life; the isolation and atomization of the current era had not yet become a depressing feature of the social landscape. The movies of the 1990s reflect this energy and optimism. The cinema of the 1990s may lack the searing conviction and anger of 70s movies, but the decade’s film catalogue is a very respectable one. We must temper this generally positive picture with tones of darkness, however. In hindsight, the 1990s now seem to carry distinct overtones of Gen X delusion and ossified Boomer autocracy, a decade of smug stasis in which critical problems affecting the country were either ignored or downplayed. Perhaps the 1990s simply reaped the 1980s foul harvest of greed and self-indulgence. You will have to decide for yourself.
Continue readingYou Have To Embrace Your Failures! (Podcast)
A reader emails me with a question about a painful failure he just experienced. He wants to know if I’ve experienced similar setbacks, and how I’ve handled them. I give my thoughts on the subject, and arrive at some general rules.
Continue readingStop Being Afraid Of Everything! (Podcast)
So many people today are totally possessed by their fears. Our society encourages this way of thinking. They take counsel of their fears, they stoke their fears, and they let their fears control their minds. The result is permanent stagnation. Stop being ruled by worry and fear. Break free of this mentality, and learn to have the confidence that you will handle anything that comes your way.
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Quintus Curtius 
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