The contemplation of the beautiful

That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.  

- Edgar Allan Poe

Τραγωδία / Tragödie

„Έστιν ουν τραγωδία, μίμησις πράξεως σπουδαίας και τελείας, μέγεθος εχούσης, ηδυσμένω λόγω, χωρίς εκάστου των ειδών εν τοις μορίοις, δρώντων και ου δι` απαγγελίας, δι` ελέου και φόβου περαίνουσαν την των τοιούτων παθημάτων κάθαρσιν.“

- Αριστοτέλης, Ποιητική

„Die Tragödie ist Nachahmung (mimêsis) einer guten und in sich geschlossenen Handlung von bestimmter Größe, in anziehend geformter Sprache, wobei nicht jedes der formenden Mitteln in den einzelnen Abschnitten angewandt wird. Durch Handlung und nicht durch Bericht, die Jammer (eleos) und Schaudern (phobos) hervorruft, wird eine Reinigung (katharsis) von derartigen Erregungszuständen bewirkt.“

- Aristoteles, Poetik

juvenile confidence

- I tell you what I've got on my side
- What have you got on your side?
- The confidence of youth

- Cold Mountain (2003)

The dark forest

"And so Galahad decided that it would be a disgrace to set off on a quest with the other knights. Alone he would enter the dark forest where there was no path."

- Joseph Campbell, The Hero's Journey

Tetrapharmakos

«Άφοβον ο θεός, ανύποπτον ο θάνατος και ταγαθόν μεν εύκτητον, το δε δεινόν ευκαρτέρητον»

- Φιλόδημος (επικούρειος), Ηράκλειο, Ιταλίας


Don't fear god, Don't worry about death;
What is good is easy to get, and
What is terrible is easy to endure

- Philodemus, Herculaneum Papyrus, 1005, 4.9-14

Παιδεία / Education

Το γαρ όλον και παν έργον της νομοθεσίας είς την παιδείαν ανήψεν

- Πλούταρχος, Βίος Λυκούργου, 14.1

Φιλοκαλούμεν γαρ μετ’ ευτελείας και φιλοσοφούμεν άνευ μαλακίας

- ΠΕΡΙΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΕΠΙΤΑΦΙΟΣ, Θουκυδίδης

Wir lieben das Schöne mit Schlichtheit und lieben das Philosophieren ohne Verweichlichung

- Gefallenenrede des Perikles, Thukydides

dance or get out of the way

- Boss, do you dance?
- Dance? No!
- Then get out of the way...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_cqxUY5oyo


- Damn it boss, I like you too much not to say it:
you've got everything except one thing,
madness. A man needs a little madness or else ...
- or else?
- he never dares cut the rope.
...

- Teach me to dance! Will you?
- Dance? Did you say dance?
- Come on my boy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=690_48tCzfE

empty boat

If a man is crossing a river and an empty boat collides with his own skiff,
even though he be a bad-tempered man he will not become very angry.
But if he sees a man in the boat, he will shout at him to steer clear.
If the shout is not heard, he will shout again, and yet again, and begin cursing.
And all because there is somebody in the boat.
Yet if the boat were empty, he would not be shouting, and not angry.

If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world,
no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you...

- Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu (1965)