Welcome
July 2010
Last month I quoted from
Lao-tzu. Please click the link to read a review of a book on
Marcus Aurelius and the Stoics of ancient Greece from the publication
In Character. Our society sometimes seems lost in materialistic indulgence and distraction. But in this month of American independence, do we really need to give up our individual desires and ambition in order to be virtuous?
But a little while and thou shalt be burnt ashes or a few dried bones, and possibly a name, possibly not a name even....And all that we prize so highly in our lives is empty and corrupt and paltry, and we but as puppies snapping at each other, as quarrelsome children now laughing and anon in tears.
-- The Meditations
There's something to get up to each day. So much for the value of achieving our fifteen minutes of fame.
For another perspective on living a virtuous life, please see an essay by A.C. Grayling on
wisdom vs. intelligence .