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A. There is more than common-sense
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1. There is something there
- They are estranged from that with which they have most constant
intercourse [93]
- The way of man has no wisdom, but that of God has [96]
- There awaits men when they die such things as they look not for nor dream
of [122]
2. It can and should be found
- Though this Word is true evermore, yet men are as unable to understand it
when they hear it for the first time as before they had heard it at all ...
[2 first part]
- Those who seek for gold dig up much earth and find a little [8]
- The lord who is the oracle at Delphoi neither utters nor hides his
meaning, but shows it by a sign [11]
- How can one hide from that which never sets [27]
- Thought is common to all [91a]
- Wantonness needs putting out, even more than a house on fire [103]
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B. It is to be
found by searching within yourself |
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3. It requires other than common understanding
- ... But other men know not what they are doing when awake, even as they
forget what they do in sleep [2 second part]
- Fools when they do hear are like the deaf: of them does the saying bear
witness that they are absent when present [3]
- Eyes and ears are bad witnesses to men if they have souls that understand
not their language [4]
- The many do not take heed of such things as those they meet with, nor do
they mark them when they are taught, though they think they do [5]
- Knowing not how to listen nor how to speak [6]
- Asses would rather have straw than gold [51]
- Oxen are happy when they find bitter vetches to eat [51a]
- Swine wash in the mire, and barnyard fowls in the dust [53]
4. It requires other than scientific understanding
- ... For though all things come to pass in accordance with this Word, men
seem as if they had no experience of them, when they make trial of words and
deeds such as I set forth, dividing each thing according to its kind and
showing how it truly is. [2 second part]
- The learning of many things teacheth not understanding, else it would have
taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hekataois [16]
- Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos, practised scientific enquiry beyond all
other men, and making a selection of these writings, claimed for his own
wisdom what was but a knowledge of many things and an imposture [17]
- Of all whose discourses I have heard, there is not one who attains to
understanding that wisdom is apart from all [18]
- The most esteemed of them knows but fancies, and holds fast to them, yet
of a truth justice shall overtake the artificers of lies and the false
witnesses [118]
5. It takes effort to find
- If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard
to be sought out and difficult [7]
- Nature loves to hide [10]
- Every beast is driven to pasture with blows [55]
- It is pleasure to souls to become moist [72]
- A man, when he gets drunk, is led by a beardless lad, tripping, knowing
not where he steps, having his soul moist [73]
- Wantonness needs putting out, even more than a house on fire [103]
- It is hard to fight with one's heart's desire. Whatever it wishes to get,
it purchases at the cost of soul [105-107]
- It is best to hide folly; but it is hard in times of relaxation over our
cups [108,109]
6. It is to be found within
- The dry soul is the wisest and best [74-76]
- I have sought for myself [80]
- So we must follow the common, yet though my Word is common, the many live
as if they had a wisdom of their own [92]
- It is not meet to act and speak like men asleep [94]
- Man's character is his fate [121]
- ... that they rise up and become wakeful guardians of the quick and dead
[123]
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C. It is a
dynamic Oneness where opposites are illusory |
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7. It is a Oneness
- It is wise to hearken, not to me, but to my Word, and to confess that all
things are one [1]
- Of all whose discourses I have heard, there is not one who attains to
understanding that wisdom is apart from all [18]
- Wisdom is one thing. It is to know the thought by which all things are
steered through all things [19]
- The wise is only one. It is unwilling and willing to be called by the name
of Zeus [65]
- You will not find the boundaries of soul by traveling in any direction, so
deep is the measure of it [71]
- One day is like any other [120]
8. It is dynamic
- This world, which is the same for all, no one of gods or men has made; but
it was ever, is now and ever shall be an ever-living Fire, with its measures
kindling and its measures going out [20]
- The sun is new every day [32]
- You cannot step twice into the same rivers; for fresh waters are ever
flowing in upon you [41-42]
- Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, the one living the
other's death and dying the other's life [67]
- It rests by changing [83]
9. There is attunement of apparent opposites.
- God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and
hunger; but he takes various shapes, just as fire, when it is mingled with
spices, is named according to the savor of each [36]
- Cold things become warm, and what is warm cools; what is wet dries, and
the parched is moistened [39]
- Homer was wrong in saying: "Would that strife might perish from among gods
and men!" He did not see that he was praying for the destruction of the
universe; for, if his prayer were heard, all things would pass away [43]
- Men do not know how what is at variance agrees with itself. It is an attunement of opposite tensions, like that of the bow and the lyre [45]
- Good and ill are one [57]
- We must know that war is common to all and strife is justice, and that all
things come into being and pass away through strife [62]
- The way up and the way down is the same [69]
- We step and do not step into the same rivers; we are and are not [81]
- It is not good for men to get all that they wish to get. It is sickness
that makes health pleasant; evil, good; hunger, plenty; weariness, rest
[104]
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