The Consolation of Philosophy

by Boethius

it is impossible for two supreme goods to exist separate from one another.

is therefore impossible for there to be two separate supreme goods.

follows that supreme happiness is identical with supreme divinity.’

Each happy individual is therefore divine.

goodness is the chief point upon which the pursuit of everything hinges and by which it is motivated.

it is patently obvious that the good itself and happiness are identical.’

that God is to be found in goodness itself and nowhere else.

unity and goodness are identical.

is there anything which in the course of its natural activity loses the will to exist and desires to obtain death and corruption?’

Everyone knows that they are like a kind of machine not only for the duration of their own lifetime, but for the almost everlasting propagation of their species.

Not even in living things is the love of self-preservation due to the wishes of their mind, but to the principles of their nature.

To such an extent does this love of self-preservation stem not from conscious desire, but from natural instinct.

Providence has given its creatures one great reason to go on living, namely the instinctive desire for the greatest possible self-preservation.

it is goodness itself which all things desire.’

‘This world would never have coalesced into one form out of such diverse and antagonistic parts had there not been one who could unify such diversity.

For this power, whatever it is, through which creation remains in existence and in motion, I use the word which all people use, namely God.’

When wickedness rules and flourishes, not only does virtue go unrewarded, it is even trodden underfoot by the wicked and punished in the place of crime. That this can happen in the realm of an omniscient and omnipotent God who wills only good, is beyond perplexity and complaint.’

all men, good and bad alike, strive to reach the good.’

‘Well, the supreme good is the goal of good men and bad alike, and the good seek it by means of a natural activity – the exercise of their virtues – while the bad strive to acquire the very same thing by means of their various desires, which isn’t a natural method of obtaining the good.

Just think how great the weakness is that we see in wicked men; they can’t even reach the goal to which almost by compulsion their natural inclination leads them.

‘Think of the extent of the weakness impeding the wicked. It is not as if the prizes they failed to win were mere sports trophies. The quest in which they fail is the quest for the highest and most important of all things,

Men who give up the common goal of all things that exist, thereby cease to exist themselves.

I am not trying to deny the wickedness of the wicked; what I do deny is that their existence is absolute and complete existence.

thing exists when it keeps its proper place and preserves its own nature. Anything which departs from this ceases to exist, because its existence depends on the preservation of its nature.

The reward of the good, then, a reward that can never be decreased, that no one’s power can diminish, and no one’s wickedness darken, is to become gods.

So what happens is that when a man abandons goodness and ceases to be human, being unable to rise to a divine condition, he sinks to the level of being an animal.

‘I agree, and I see the justice of saying that though they retain the outward appearance of the human body, wicked people change into animals with regard to their state of mind. But I could have wished that no freedom was allowed to the fury of cruel and wicked-minded men to bring destruction on the good.’

the wicked are happier if they suffer punishment than if they are unrestrained by any just retribution.

‘So the wicked are much more unhappy when they are unjustly allowed to go scot free, than when a just punishment is imposed upon them.’

But let us see what is decreed by everlasting law: if you have turned your mind to higher things, there is no need of a judge to award a prize; it is you yourself who have brought yourself to a more excellent state:

you have directed your zeal towards lower things, do not look for punishment from without; it is you yourself who have plunged yourself into the worse condition – just as if you look by turns at the sky and the dirt of the earth, and everything else disappears and you seem at one moment to be in the mud and at the next moment among the stars, just by the action of looking. But ordinary people do not see such things.

it is clear that when someone is done an injury, the misery belongs not to the victim but to the perpetrator.

‘This is why among wise men there is no place at all left for hatred. For no one except the greatest of fools would hate good men. And there is no reason at all for hating the bad.

just as weakness is a disease of the body, so wickedness is a disease of the mind.

even if you don’t know the reason behind the great plan of the universe, there is no need for you to doubt that a good power rules the world and that everything happens aright.

How...refreshing. Oy veh.

God in his Providence constructs a single fixed plan of all that is to happen,

while it is by means of Fate that all that He has planned is realized in its many individual details in the course of time.

whatever moves any distance from the primary intelligence becomes enmeshed in ever stronger chains of Fate, and everything is the freer from Fate the closer it seeks the centre of things.

Ok sure.

Whenever, therefore, you see something happen here different from your expectation, due order is preserved by events, but there is confusion and error in your thinking.

Some men at the price of a glorious death have won a fame that generations will venerate; some indomitable in the face of punishment have given others an example that evil cannot defeat virtue. There is no doubt that it is right that these things happen, that they are planned and that they are suited to those to whom they actually happen.

a certain order embraces all things, and anything which departs from the order planned and assigned to it, only falls back into order, albeit a different order, so as not to allow anything to chance in the realm of Providence.

Evil is thought to abound on earth. But if you could see the plan of Providence, you would not think there was evil anywhere.

I have seen a video of a man eating the heart of a recently-slain battle foe. Men rape babies. Wounded Knee Massacre. My Lai. Nukes. Hitler. Stalin. Mao. This is bullshit by any reasonable calculation, especially coming from a man about to be bludgeoned to death by political enemies. Reassuring in a moment of desperation, perhaps, but only to a completely and absolutely desperate man.

‘All fortune is certainly good.’

All fortune whether pleasant or adverse is meant either to reward or discipline the good or to punish or correct the bad. We agree, therefore, on the justice or usefulness of fortune, and so all fortune is good.’

the result of all that we have agreed is that whatever the fortune of those who are in possession of virtue (whether that possession is perfect, still growing or only incipient), it is good, while the fortune of all those who rest in wickedness is utterly bad.’

‘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, for the one to gain glory and the oth...

This is why virtue gets its name, because it is firm in strength and unc...

You are engaged in a bitter but spirited struggle against fortune of every kind, to avoid falling victim to her when she is adverse or being corrupted by her when she is favourable.

Hold to the middle way with unshakeable strength. Whatever falls short or goes beyond, despises happiness but receives no reward for its toil.