How should we approach the pursuit of wisdom?
We should begin, as is natural, by taking first principles first.
Aristotle, Poetics, Ch. 1
Why do we need to observe tragedy?
Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is admirable, complete and possesses magnitude; in
language made pleasurable, each of its species separated in different parts; performed by
actors, not through narration; effecting through pity and fear the purification of such emotions.
Aristotle, Poetics, Ch. 4
What is man’s tragic condition?
Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing Heav’nly Muse…
What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the heighth of this great argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.
Milton, Paradise Lost, 1.1.26
How does lost man cope with this condition?
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.5.19–28
How should one face and prepare for the inevitable struggles in life?
The Romans did what all wise rulers must: cope not only with present troubles but also with ones
likely to arise in the future, and assiduously forestall them. When trouble is sensed well in
advance it can be easily remedied; if you wait for it to show itself any medicine will be too late
because the disease will have become incurable. As the doctors say of a wasting disease, to start
with it is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; after a time . . . it becomes easy to diagnose but
difficult to cure. So it is in politics.
Machiavelli, The Prince
How do the valiant face death?
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Julius Caesar, 2.2.34-39
How are people remembered after death?
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
Julius Caesar, 3.2.84-85
How may man be restored to a state of grace?
So man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for man, be judged and die,
And dying rise, and rising with him raise
His brethren, ransomed with his own dear life.
So Heav’nly love shall outdo Hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,
So dearly to redeem what Hellish hate
So easily destroyed, and still destroys
In those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Milton, Paradise Lost, 3.294-302
How does God convert a soul?
Therefore, those to whom God has imparted religion by intuition are very fortunate and justly
convinced. But to those who do not have it, we can give it only by reasoning, waiting for God to
give them spiritual insight, without which faith is only human and useless for salvation.
Pascal, Pensées, 282
How are we given the ability to please God?
How foolish it was of Christ to purchase for us at the price of his shed blood the Spirit we did not
need, in order that we might be given a facility in keeping the commandments, who we already
have one by nature.
Martin Luther, On the Bondage of the Will
How can a believer face both life and death?
So I hold my arms to my Redeemer, who, having been foretold for four thousand years, has come
to suffer and to die for me on earth, at the time and under all the circumstances foretold. By His
grace, I await death in peace, in the hope of being eternally united to Him. Yet I live with joy,
whether in the prosperity which it pleases Him to bestow upon me, or in the adversity which He
sends for my good, and which He has taught me to bear by His example.
Pascal, Pensées, 737