Failure is the one thing that modern men are almost always willing to excuse and yet are almost never willing to learn from. No wonder it does them so little good.
from The Business, Career, and Work of Man
Tag Archives: aphorism
OUTCAST HONESTY
“When a man is terrified of being an outcast there is no way he can possibly be courageous enough to be honest.”
from Human Effort
THE DANGER from THE BUSINESS, CAREER, AND WORK OF MAN
Part of me greatly adores and admires words, as they are man’s chief means of communication and the primary treasure of his High Word Hoard. Another part of me, an equal part, absolutely distrusts and detests words as they are the means by which far too many men habitually deceive themselves and the rest of the world, and mankind’s primary method of excuse making in order to avoid noble and just action.
(As a writer) I am like a man caught in the grinding maw of some bizarre and fantastic creature who is sometimes angelic, and sometimes demonic, yet always dangerous.
IT IS INDEED
INTERMINABLY SO… from DIVINE SOPHIA
God is the least passive and static Being and Force in the universe. Any universe. If you are “waiting upon God” then it is only because you have gravely mistaken your real position in relation to things. God long ago easily and immediately surpassed you and is merely waiting upon you to catch up to him, not the other way around.
Do not deceive yourself. You do not “sit and wait upon God.” God sits and waits upon you… sometimes interminably.
THE FREE, THE NOBLE, AND THE GOOD from HUMAN EFFORT
When the Free and Good and Noble Man is too powerful to resist then you have peace and prosperity. When the Free and Good and Noble Man is too weak to resist then you have tyranny and war.
THE PEERAGE OF GREAT EQUALS
THE PEERAGE OF GREAT EQUALS
I don’t have any idols. Never have, and never will, either real or fictional. I have people I admire, and would like to emulate in some way or another (not emulate in other ways) but not idols. Certainly not like modern people seem to think of idols. In the sense that I’d like to be someone else or that I would ever fawn over anyone else. I never would. I have only ever wanted to be me. And I would never fawn over me, much less any other man. To me that is both low, and ignorant.
And I don’t think of the people I admire and would like to emulate in some way as my rivals, but rather as exemplars of some particular capability or trait. And likely and potential friends with whom I would work well together or some important project or endeavor. To me to instinctively think of other great men as my natural and necessary rivals is both low and arrogant. So in those senses I totally disagree with this sentiment.
However I think that the underlying implication is that you want to work your way up to being a Peer and an Equal (in the sense of your on capabilities) with other great men and women, rather than forever remain a subordinate or inferior (in action and ability). And in that respect I agree with the sentiment expressed below.
I have always believed in the Peerage (and Friendship) of Great Equals. I think that is what this is really trying to convey. Unfortunately modern people are so filled with the petty pop culture modern bullshit of fawning over and being obsequious towards others, sometimes of actually wanting to be and of idolizing others (rather than their abilities and capabilities), or of being jealous of others (a very petty and puny vice indeed), and just instinctively think of other Great Men and Women as natural rivals rather than what they truly are – potential Peers and Friends and as Great Men and Women with whom you could work to achieve even more together than you could separately.
So in that respect the only way far too many modern people seem to reflexively understand other Great Men and Women is as either idols and/or rivals. And thinking of other men as idols is just plain juvenile, whereas thinking of other men as natural and unavoidable rivals is not necessarily Wise at all. These habits and ideals seem more engrained by uncritical and unexamined instinct than by malicious intent. Still, I think them small and counter-productive for the most part.
But I don’t think of other men in that way at all. First of all I think of all men as my equals, neither inferior nor superior. And secondly I think of all men as being my potential peers if they so wish.
I think of it as the Peerage of Great Equals.
And that’s exactly what I mean to be, the Peer and Equal of Other Great Men.
But I will never idolize them, anymore than I wish to be idolized, nor are other men my instinctive rivals. Just as likely they are my as yet unrealized friends and peers.
BEING PASSIVE from HUMAN EFFORT
Being patient and peaceful in the midst of adversity can often be Great Virtues. Being passive in the face of anything is, more often than not, merely a vice.
SO MANY MEN – from DIVINE SOPHIA
So many men think that if only they lived in a good and just world then they too would be by nature and in all things good and just. Not realizing, or not wishing to realize, that it is not the world that so makes the man but the man the world.
THE UNSPOKEN ANSWER from MEMORABLE LITERARY LINES
Modern man wants everything explained to him. Not understanding that the very best and most perfect explanations are those left unspoken.
THE WONDERFUL THING – MEMORABLE LITERARY LINES
The wonderful thing about being a poet is that you can be completely self-contradictory and still be entirely correct.
TRULY TELLS from HUMAN EFFORT
In life many things may rightfully inform but it is behavior that always truly tells.
IF YOU ARE HIDING
If you are hiding things from your audience when you write then you are not really a writer – you are a censor and a self-censor.
SCIENCE AND TRUTH from THE BUSINESS, CAREER, AND WORK OF MAN
Science used to be primarily concerned with the Truth, now it is primarily bothered by it.
THE MODERN WAY from THE BUSINESS, CAREER, AND WORK OF MAN
The modern artist is on rare occasion entirely right. The modern scientist is on many occasions completely wrong. The difference in relation to everyone else is this: the artist, even if he is sometimes entirely right, has no guarantee of any kind that he can convince anyone of it, except himself, whereas the scientist, even if he is completely and habitually wrong can easily convince millions of the gullible that he must be correct.
NO IDEA (AND YET I DO) from HUMAN EFFORT
I still have no idea what man may yet best me at something. But I always know that man who will never best me at anything – the man who does not try.
IF YOU DON’T… from HUMAN EFFORT
If you don’t have the courage to actually do a thing then what does it matter if you talk about it for a thousand years? You still won’t have the guts to actually attempt it.
HONESTY IS THAT METHOD from HUMAN EFFORT
Honesty is that method by which a man becomes more truly himself.
THE OVERMASTERED MAN from HUMAN EFFORT
Emotions are fine things if they lead to useful improvements in a man’s circumstances (beneficial insights, sustained advancement, heroic self-sacrifice, workable solutions and cures), but emotions that merely lead to more emotions and to self-absorption are worse than useless, they are actually detrimental to human progress.
Modern man is almost wholly absorbed in the latter view of his own emotions. Therefore he constantly wallows in his own anger, fear, hatred, and loss of self-discipline and self-control. He is in constant self-generated despair about both the things he could easily control about himself and the world but won’t bother to, and the things he could never control but “feels” he must.
Yet it never occurs to modern man that he is absorbed in this hyper-emotional outlook upon himself and the rest of the world merely because he chooses it to be so. Many far wiser people throughout the history of the world have had far different views upon the role emotions should play in living their lives.
Emotions are merely camouflaged vices when they overmaster the man.
THE SEDENTARY MAN from HUMAN EFFORT
I would venture to say that most of the diseases and disorders (especially the chronic ones) faced by modern man develop as a direct result of his mostly self-inflicted sedentary and passive nature. He is sedentary and passive in his work, he is sedentary and passive in his entertainments, he is sedentary and passive in his ambitions, he is sedentary and passive towards evil and injustice in the world, he is sedentary and passive in the amount of tyranny he will endure, he is sedentary and passive in his economic ventures, he is sedentary and passive in his relations with others, and he is sedentary and passive in his very nature.
Modern man is filled with the sitting and waiting diseases. He is mainly merely an observer of life, sitting upon his plump ass in his comfortable cafes, staring at his various diversionary devices and inventions, waiting for something to happen. Of course everything that is really happening around him he is entirely unobservant of and uninvolved with.
How could such a way of life, practiced continually, breed anything but disease and disorder?
THE ANSWER from HUMAN EFFORT
Just because, for the moment, you cannot pursue the repairs you wish to make does not mean you should make no repairs. Just because, for the moment, you cannot obtain the cure you wish to obtain does not mean that you should attempt no cure of any kind. Just because, for the moment, you cannot create the permanent solution you most desire does not mean you must desire to never act upon the temporary solution. Repair what you can, cure what you can, and resolve what you can as you can for even only a partial answer is a far better response than the reply of apathy, inaction, sloth, and despair.
TO BE OF ANY USE from ON MAN AND WOMAN
To be of any use in marriage one must be patiently forgiving of the shortcomings of your partner while eagerly desirous of eliminating your own.
MEN OF THE MODERN WEST
The Men of the (modern) West want a Sally Knight to ride forth and do Good and Justice in the world. It’s just that most of them always want to be the Sally, never the Knight.
THE READY MAN from HUMAN EFFORT
It readily occurs to modern man to automatically doubt everything and everyone at all times, except of course, his own doubts at any time.
MOST MEN from HUMAN EFFORT
Most men could change for the better in an instant if they really so desired. Unfortunately most men would rather expend the enormous energies required to prove themselves right than expend the far more modest effort required to actually be right.
GOD from DIVINE SOPHIA
God is extremely good at concealment, and when he so wishes, God is absolutely beyond all our meager capabilities of pursuit and detection. Yet when God wishes to be found then he will be found and the Wise man does very well to observe and note all he can for as long as he can. For in such moments of discovery are to be found the answer to many a mystery.
WORDS INTO WIND
Words become wind when devoid of all substance. If you wish to say well, then first do well. Action gives substance to words, words do not give substance to reality. They merely describe it.
If you want to write well about anything in life worth doing, then first do that thing. Thereafter the writing will mostly take care of itself.
WHATEVER – From Human Effort
Not everyone needs to be doing the exact same things. But everyone needs to be doing whatever they are doing in exactly the same way – to the very best of their abilities.
WHO KNOWS – from Human Effort
Who knows what a man may become?
But one thing he will never become. What he never attempts.
CONTENT AND CHARACTER from THE BUSINESS, CAREER, AND WORK OF MAN
Far too many modern Americans are extremely and wantonly self-aware of structure and characterization, but entirely and willfully self-ignorant of Content and Character. Both on the personal level of the human being and on the societal level of human interaction.
THE PERFECT MAN from DIVINE SOPHIA
The wisely perfect man is not interested in proclaiming his own perfection, but in proclaiming the means of his perfection. Which was never himself.
ONLY GOD AND MAN from DIVINE SOPHIA
Only man can perfect man. Only God can provide the means.
Wyrdwend 