Wednesday 29 February 2012

Plutarch on Generalship

What a Roman soldier likes most to see is his general eating his ration of bread with the rest, or sleeping on an ordinary bed, or joining in the work of digging a trench or raising a palisade. The commanders whom they admire are not so much those who distribute honours & riches as those who take a share in their hardships & their dangers; they have more affection for those who are willing to join in their work than for those who indulge them in going easy. 
- Plutarch, The Life of Gaius Marius. [7]

Sunday 19 February 2012

From Prosper Mérimée

Faute de pouvoir exprimer ce qu’on sent; on décrit d’autres sensations qui peuvent être comprises par tout le monde.
Unable to express what one feels, one describes other feelings, which everyone can understand.
- Prosper Mérimée (from “H.B.”, his essay on Henri Beyle, i.e. Stendhal)   

The sun has got his hat on ...





Saturday 18 February 2012

A few hints of spring ...



All Consensus ...

All consensus is a lie - at least to the extent that it is an attempt to deny the fundamental truth of our condition, which is that we do not know what man is, or what a state of health for him might mean. 


Consensus attempts to cover up this question, to pretend that it does not arise, or that it has been answered. 


And the good, whatever the good may be deemed to be, usually it is the supposed good of the community, is always used as a way of defending against this question, in an attempt to prevent it being raised.

Sunday 12 February 2012

From Montaigne - On Repentance

To storm a breach, conduct an embassy, govern a people, those are brilliant actions. To scold, laugh, sell, pay, love, hate, & deal gently & justly with one’s family & oneself, not to relax or contradict oneself: that is something rarer, more difficult & less noticed by the world. A life of retirement, therefore, whatever men may say, is subject to duties as harsh & exacting as any other, if not more so. And private persons, says Aristotle, do virtue a higher & more difficult service than men in authority.  – Montaigne, On Repentance

"For the rain it raineth every day ..."





Thursday 2 February 2012

Along the Marina at Cork - February 1st & 2nd







I took the top chap (chappess?) yesterday through the kitchen window. The others show a little of the frost along by the river this morning.