Schopenhauer: Shrewd Counsel | Counsels & Maxims 52
Published 2024-07-08
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Section 52 of Counsels and Maxims (1851)
0:00 Shrewd Counsel
0:47 Passage from Iliad
2:32 Stupidity & Cunning
3:22 Comment
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Music: Among the Clouds, by Darren Curtis
Thumbnail Image: 1815 Portrait, By Ludwig Sigismund Ruhl - Schopenhauer-Archiv der Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=394003
Schopenhauer Text:
What people commonly call Fate is, as a general rule, nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct. There is a fine passage in Homer, illustrating the truth of this remark, where the poet praises [GK: maetis]—shrewd counsel; and his advice is worthy of all attention. For if wickedness is atoned for only in another world, stupidity gets its reward here—although, now and then, mercy may be shown to the offender. It is not ferocity but cunning that strikes fear into the heart and forebodes danger; so true it is that the human brain is a more terrible weapon than the lion's paw. The most finished man of the world would be one who was never irresolute and never in a hurry.