
Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, Chapter VIII, p. 721.
March 21, 1776, p. 287
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, Chapter VIII, p. 721.
“There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death.”
The Defeat of Death
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XXIII - Death
Source: Looking Backward, 2000-1887 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25439 (1888), Ch. 21.
The Mathematicall Praeface to Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara (1570)
Context: There is (gentle reader) nothing (the works of God only set apart) which so much beautifies and adorns the soul and mind of man as does knowledge of the good arts and sciences. Many arts there are which beautify the mind of man; but of all none do more garnish and beautify it than those arts which are called mathematical, unto the knowledge of which no man can attain, without perfect knowledge and instruction of the principles, grounds, and Elements of Geometry.
“Thus the soul has gradually been turned into a Nazareth from which nothing good can come.”
CW 12, par. 126 (p 99)
Psychology and Alchemy (1952)
Context: People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen of diet, learn the literature of the whole world - all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not the slightest faith that anything useful could ever come out of their own souls. Thus the soul has gradually been turned into a Nazareth from which nothing good can come.
"Sunday Morning".
Conversations with Robertson Davies (1989)
“For nothing is so much adapted to produce magnanimity.”
X, 11
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X
Context: Acquire the contemplative way of seeing how all things change into one another, and constantly attend to it, and exercise thyself about this part [of philosophy]. For nothing is so much adapted to produce magnanimity.... But as to what any man shall say or think about him, or do against him, he never even thinks of it, being himself contented with these two things: with acting justly in what he now does, and being satisfied with what is now assigned to him; and he lays aside all distracting and busy pursuits, and desires nothing else than to accomplish the straight course through the law, and by accomplishing the straight course to follow God.
p, 125
"On the Harmony of Theory and Practice in Mechanics" (Jan. 3, 1856)