The Consolation of Philosophy

by Boethius

This absence of tension between pagan and Christian tradition was able to foster a milieu in which the concept of the twofold approach to truth, one via the exercise of the reason, one via revelation, was natural and easy to maintain.

caelo imperitans amor. –‘the love that moves the sun and other stars’

K. Rand has observed, prison-literature often takes the form of a theodicy,

And I a worn out bone-bag hung with flesh.

‘Who,’ she demanded, her piercing eyes alight with fire, ‘has allowed these hysterical sluts to approach this sick man’s bedside?

Zeno was tortured,

The torturer was never able to reach him

and as it is the accepted opinion that the nature of the mind is such that for every true belief it rejects, it assumes a false one from which the fog of distraction rises to blot out its true insight,

I know the many disguises of that monster, Fortune,

However, no sudden change of circumstances ever occurs without some upheaval in the mind; and that is why you, too, have deserted for a while your usual calm.

‘This is true, even if no one would dare to admit it.’ ‘So a wise man ought no more to take it ill when he clashes with fortune than a brave man ought to be upset by the sound of battle. For both of them their very distress is an opportunity,