Category Archives: Philosophia

El peso de este mundo sólo se puede soportar postrado de hinojos. One can only support the weight of this world while on one’s knees. Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito: Selección, p. 424. Translation: Don Colacho’s Aphorisms.

So, if one is neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed, would one be whelmed? And isn’t that just so fine, to be whelmed? UPDATE: Rather NOT. See the comments!

Do not saddle yourself with fools: he is one who does not know them, and a greater, he who knowing them, does not shake them off, for they are dangerous in the daily round, and deadly as confidants, even if at times their cowardice restrains them; or the watchful eye of another; in the endContinue reading “Some wisdomly advice”

In all matters keep something in reserve. It is to insure your position ; not all your wit must be spent nor all your energies sapped every time ; even of what you know keep a rear guard, for it is to double your advantage, always to have in reserve something to call upon whenContinue reading “On Reserve”

Language and literature disclose to us the moral realm of free human agents: the moral realm, because we understand it by analogy with the way we understand ourselves. In it we are confronted with the mystery of human freedom, as opposed to the puzzle of the interaction of natural laws; and this is a mysteryContinue reading “Louth, Gadamer, Haecker”

Do not saddle yourself with fools: he is one who does not know them, and a greater, he who knowing them, does not shake them off, for they are dangerous in the daily round, and deadly as confidants, even if at times their cowardice restrains them; or the watchful eye of another; in the endContinue reading “On Fools”

Diligent, and intelligent. Diligence quickly accomplishes what the intelligence has well thought out. Haste is the passion of fools, and as they know not the difficulties, they work without heed: wiser men, on the other hand, are likely to fail from over-caution; for of reflection is bred delay: and so their hesitation in acting losesContinue reading “To make haste slowly”

Look beneath. For ordinarily things are far other than they seem; and the dullness which does not seek to pass beyond the rind, is due to be increasingly disillusioned if it gets deeper into the interior. The false is forever the lead in everything, continually dragging along the fools: the truth brings up the rear,Continue reading “Truth…limps along upon the arm of time”

Have helpful spirits about you. The good fortune of the mighty that they can surround themselves with men of understanding who protect them from the dangers of every ignorance, who disengage them from the snarls of every difficulty. A singular distinction, to be served by the wise; and better than the barbarous taste of Tigranes,Continue reading “He who does not know, does not live”

[Be] Alert when seeking information. We live for the most part by what is told us; it is little that we see; thus we live in the faith of others; the ear is the side door of truth, but the front door of falsehood. The truth is sometimes seen, but rarely heard: on the fewestContinue reading “The ear is the side door of truth”