Your Morning Plutarch
Your Morning Plutarch
For Friday, September 27th, 2024
Week 79 of our regular morning feature here at Friedman of the Plains Worldwide in which we highlight the great words and works of great men and women, as well as those who are insufferable, delusional, and even fictional.
This Week Plutarch
“You, on the other hand, have often been told that following God and listening to reason are identical; so bear in mind that for intelligent people the passage from childhood to adulthood is not an abandonment of rules, but a change of ruler: instead of someone [E] whose services are hired and bought, they accept in their lives the divine leadership of reason – and it is only those who follow reason who deserve to be regarded as free. For they alone live as they want, since they have learned to want only what is necessary.”
Bonus Plutarch
“Of all the disorders in the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses to.”
It's possible that the Roman gods were mere personifications of logic and reason; however, from what we know of the Trump-like behavior of Zeus, it's likely that any claim that the gods are reasonable is mere spin. In our own time, it's clear that belief in an invisible governor does not play well with thinking clearly, and I contend that those who claim to have happily married the two aren't as religious as they think they are.
Plutarch was right about envy. Here's something else on that topic:
"The chief barrier to happiness is envy." Frank Tyger (1929-2011), nationally published editorial cartoonist, columnist and humorist for the Trenton Times. (From Kareem Abdul Jabbar's substack)