Topic

Causes

Aristotle: poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. Aurelius: how much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes. Spinoza on happiness or unhappiness depending entirely on the quality of what you love — which makes causation an ethical problem, not just a mechanical one. Camus on the impossibility of happiness for those who search for what it consists of rather than simply living. Vergil: happy is the one who knows the causes of things. Napoleon's two levers — fear and self-interest — describe how most people are moved in practice. The collection is interested in causation as moral inquiry: not merely what produces what, but whether understanding causes changes what you choose to do.

61

Quotes

1/4

Page

One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry

Source: Miscellaneous Aphorisms (1911)

Happy is the one who knows the causes of things

There are two levers to set a man in motion, fear and self-interest

The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love's sake only

The early riser gets through his business but not through early rising

For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action

The lack of money is the root of all evil

There is a woman at the begining of all great things

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.

To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love

Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation.

Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect

All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone

Courage considered in itself or without reference to its causes, is no virtue, and deserves no esteem

Boredom is the root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself.

Lack of money is the root of all evil