Sunday, February 12, 2006
Prayer
Epicurus, fragment 388 Usener (tr. Cyril Bailey):
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If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are for ever praying for evil against one another.Cf. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal E (1839-1842), 109:
εἰ ταῖς ἀνθρώπων εὐχαῖς ὁ θεὸς κατηκολούθει, θᾶττον ἂν ἀπώλλυντο πάντες ἄνθρωποι, συνεχῶς πολλὰ καὶ χαλεπὰ κατ᾽ ἀλλήλων εὐχόμενοι.
Had Jove heard all his prayers, the planet would soon have been unpeopled.
