Boethius,
The Consolation of Philosophy
"For often as a man receives the reward of fame for his boasting, the
conscience that indulges in self congratulation loses something of its secret
merit."
"...another weight is added to my load of ills in that the world does not
judge actions on their merit, but on their chance results, and they consider
that only those things which are blessed with a happy outcome have been
undertaken with sound advice. It is always the unfortunate who are first
to be deserted by the goodwill of men."
"No man is rich who shakes and groans convinced that he needs more."
"If the enjoyment of any earthly blessing brings with it any measure of
happiness, the memory of that splendid day can never be destroyed by the
burden however great of growing evil."
"You are a happy man if you know where your true happiness lies, since when
the chief concern of mortal men is to keep their hold on life, you even now
possess blessings which no one can doubt are more precious than life itself.
So dry your tears. Fortune has not yet turned her hatred against all your
blessings. The storm has not yet broken upon you with too much violence.
Your anchors are holding firm and they permit you both comfort in the present,
and hope in the future."
"...let us examine this much lauded and much sought after power of yours.
You creatures of earth, don't you stop to consider the people over whom you
think you exercise authority? You would laugh if you saw a community of mice
and one mouse arrogating to himself power and jurisdiction over the others.
Again, think of the human body: could you discover anything more feeble than
man, when often even a tiny fly can kill him either by its bite or by creeping
into some inward part of him? The only way one man can exercise power over
another is over his body and what is inferior to it, his possessions. You
cannot impose anything on a free mind, and you cannot move from its state
of inner tranquillity a mind at peace with itself and firmly founded on
reason."
"...by her flattery good fortune lures men away from the path of true good,
but adverse fortune frequently draws men back to their true good like a
shepherdess with her crook. Do you think it is of small account that this
harsh and terrible misfortune has revealed those friends whose hearts are
loyal to you? She has shown you the friends whose smiles were true smiles,
and those whose smiles were false; in deserting you Fortune has taken her
friends with her and left those who are really yours. Had you remained untouched
and, as you thought, blessed by Fortune, you would have been unable to get
such knowledge at any price. So you are weeping over lost riches when you
have really found the most precious of all riches - friends who are true
friends."
Philosophy is reciting Fortune's arguments to Boethius, "I would like to
continue our discussion a while by using Fortune's own arguments, and I would
like you to consider whether her demands are just. 'Why do you burden me
each day, mortal man,' she asks, 'with your querulous accusations? What harm
have I done you? What possessions of yours have I stolen? Choose any judge
you like and sue me for possession of wealth and rank, and if you can show
that any part of these belongs by right to any mortal man, I will willingly
concede that what you are seeking to regain really did belong to you. When
nature brought you forth from your mother's womb I received you naked and
devoid of everything and fed you from my own resources. I was inclined to
favor you, and I brought you up - and this is what makes you lose patience
with me - with a measure of indulgence, surrounding you with all the splendour
and affluence at my command. Now I have decided to withdraw my hand. You
have been receiving a favour as one who has had the use of another's possessions,
and you have no right to complain as if what you have lost was fully your
own. You have no cause to begin groaning at me: I have done you no violence.
Wealth, honours and the like are all under my jurisdiction. They are my servants
and know their mistress. When I come, they come with me, and when I go, they
leave as well. I can say with confidence that if the things whose loss you
are bemoaning were really yours, you could never have lost them. Surely I
am not the only one to be denied the exercise of my rights? The heavens are
allowed to bring forth the bright daylight and lay it to rest in the darkness
of night: the year is allowed alternately to deck the face of the earth with
fruit and flowers and to disfigure it with cloud and cold. The sea is allowed
either to be calm and inviting or to rage with storm-driven breakers. Shall
man's insatiable greed bind me to a constancy which is alien to my ways?
Inconstancy is my very essence; it is the game I never cease to play as I
turn my wheel in its ever changing circle, filled with joy as I bring the
top to the bottom and the bottom to the top. Yes, rise up on my wheel if
you like, but don't count it an injury when by the same token you begin to
fall, as the rules of the game will require."