Contemplate the extent and stability of the heavens, and then at last cease to admire worthless things.
Interpretation
Reflect on the vastness and permanence of the universe, leading to a disinterest in trivial matters.
This quote by Boethius encourages us to look beyond the immediate and superficial aspects of life by contemplating the grand and eternal nature of the cosmos. When we recognize our small place in the universe, it inspires a sense of humility and helps us prioritize what truly matters, ultimately leading us to discard the distractions of materialism and insignificance.
In practice
In a speech about focusing on what truly matters in life.
And no renown can render you well-known:_x000D_ For if you think that fame can lengthen life _x000D_ By mortal famousness immortalized,_x000D_ The day will come that takes your fame as well,_x000D_ And there a second death for you awaits.
Man is so constituted that he then only excels other things when he knows himself.
He who has calmly reconciled his life to fate, and set proud death beneath his feet, can look fortune in the face, unbending both to good and bad; his countenance unconquered.
Every man must be content with that glory which he may have at home.
For in all adversity of fortune the worst sort of misery is to have been happy.
I who once wrote songs with keen delight am now by sorrow driven to take up melancholy measures. Wounded Muses tell me what I must write, and elegiac verses bathe my face with real tears. Not even terror could drive from me these faithful companions of my long journey. Poetry, which was once the glory of my happy and flourishing youth, is still my comfort in this misery of my old age.
I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.
Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of revelation, finds its release.
Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies.
One who has never known the turbulence of life, in whom the petals of the mysterious flower within have never opened; such a one may seem happy, may seem a saint, his single track mind may impress the multitude with its power - but he is ill equipped for life's true adventure into the infinite.
I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort. If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it.
Six feet of dirt make all men equal.
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