Boethius
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius, was a Roman senator, consul, magister officiorum, and philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born four years after Odoacer deposed the last Roman Emperor and declared himself King of Italy, and entered public service under Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great, who later imprisoned and executed him in 524 on charges of conspiracy to overthrow him. While jailed, Boethius composed his Consolation of Philosophy, a philosophical treatise on fortune, death, and other...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionPhilosopher
god eye light
Give me Thy light, and fix my eyes on Thee!
reason
As far as possible, join faith to reason.
depressing men feeling-alone
A man content to go to heaven alone will never go to heaven.
individuality substance rational
A person is an individual substance of a rational nature.
numbers secret acquisition
The science of numbers ought to be preferred as an acquisition before all others, because of its necessity and because of the great secrets and other mysteries which there are in the properties of numbers. All sciences partake of it, and it has need of none.
stars heart order
Love binds people too, in matrimony's sacred bonds where chaste lovers are met, and friends cement their trust and friendship. How happy is mankind, if the love that orders the stars above rules, too, in your hearts.
good-luck men thinking
So nothing is ever good or bad unless you think it so, and vice versa. All luck is good luck to the man who bears it with equanimity.
adversity men affliction
In every kind of adversity, the bitterest part of a man's affliction is to remember that he once was happy.
sadness thinking sad-life
Nothing is miserable unless you think it so.
love valentines-day law
Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.
heart men tyrants
Wretched men cringe before tyrants who have no power, the victims of their trivial hopes and fears. They do not realise that anger is hopeless, fear is pointless and desire all a delusion. He whose heart is fickle is not his own master, has thrown away his shield, deserted his post, and he forges the links of the chain that holds him.
kindness adversity unhappy
In omni adversitate fortunæ, infelicissimum genus est infortunii fuisse felicem In every adversity of fortune, to have been happy is the most unhappy kind of misfortune.
thinking fame well-known
And no renown can render you well-known: For if you think that fame can lengthen life By mortal famousness immortalized, The day will come that takes your fame as well, And there a second death for you awaits.
if-there-is-a-god evil there-is-no-god
If there is a God, whence proceed so many evils? If there is no God, whence cometh any good?