Happy New Year! Words of Wisdom from 2,080± Years Ago
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2020 10:19 am
From On the Nature of Things by Lucretius, circa 60 BCE:
And next, as in construction, if the carpenter's rule is warped at the start,
and if the level is off at all in any part,
all the structures must turn out full of problems,
crooked, warped, bulging in front and back, and discordant,
so they seem to want to collapse at once, and they do collapse,
since they all were betrayed by false judgments at the start,
so too your reasoning about things must be
warped and false, when it has arisen from false senses.
..................................................
As victor he brings back from there the knowledge of what can come to be,
what cannot, in short, by what process each thing
has its power limited, and its deep-set boundary stone.
.................................................
(Lucretius frequently uses the phrase deep-set boundary stone. He was well aware of the significance of setting boundary stones deep into the ground to permanently demarcate important boundaries. As a Roman philosopher and poet, and building upon the groundbreaking work of Epicurus, he uses the analogy of boundary stones as a way to warn readers of the dangers of allowing superstition, ideology, and dogma to circumscribe creative thought. So, check your tools, measure twice, cut once...and use deep-set stones to mark physical boundaries only.)
And next, as in construction, if the carpenter's rule is warped at the start,
and if the level is off at all in any part,
all the structures must turn out full of problems,
crooked, warped, bulging in front and back, and discordant,
so they seem to want to collapse at once, and they do collapse,
since they all were betrayed by false judgments at the start,
so too your reasoning about things must be
warped and false, when it has arisen from false senses.
..................................................
As victor he brings back from there the knowledge of what can come to be,
what cannot, in short, by what process each thing
has its power limited, and its deep-set boundary stone.
.................................................
(Lucretius frequently uses the phrase deep-set boundary stone. He was well aware of the significance of setting boundary stones deep into the ground to permanently demarcate important boundaries. As a Roman philosopher and poet, and building upon the groundbreaking work of Epicurus, he uses the analogy of boundary stones as a way to warn readers of the dangers of allowing superstition, ideology, and dogma to circumscribe creative thought. So, check your tools, measure twice, cut once...and use deep-set stones to mark physical boundaries only.)