Laudator Temporis Acti

There is no disgrace in being told of some blemish — indeed, if one takes criticism in good part, without being ruffled by it, it commonly leads one to a remedy.

οὐ γὰρ τό γε γνῶναί τι τῶν μὴ καλῶν ἄτιμον, ἀλλὰ ἴασιν ἐξ αὐτοῦ συμβαίνει γίγνεσθαι τῷ μὴ φθόνῳ τὰ λεγόμενα ἀλλ᾽ εὐνοίᾳ δεχομένῳ.

The human being is at bottom a wild, horrible animal. We know it merely in its bridled and tame state, which we call civilization, and this is why we are shocked by the occasional eruptions of its nature. But where and when the lock and chain of lawful order happen to fall away and anarchy breaks out, then it shows what it is.

Der Mensch ist im Grunde ein wildes entsetzliches Thier. Wir kennen es bloß im Zustande der Bändigung und Zähmung, welcher Civilisation heißt: daher erschrecken uns die gelegentlichen Ausbrüche seiner Natur. Aber wo und wann einmal Schloß und Kette der gesetzlichen Ordnung abfallen und Anarchie eintritt, da zeigt sich, was er ist.

When a man drinks it, it immediately makes him more cheerful than he was before; the more he takes, the more it fills him with boundless optimism: he thinks he can do anything. Finally, bursting with self-esteem and imposing no restraint on his speech and actions, the fellow loses all his inhibitions and becomes completely fearless: he'll say and do anything, without a qualm.

πιόντα τὸν ἄνθρωπον αὐτὸν αὑτοῦ ποιεῖ πρῶτον ἵλεων εὐθὺς μᾶλλον ἢ πρότερον, καὶ ὁπόσῳ ἂν πλέον αὐτοῦ γεύηται, τοσούτῳ πλειόνων ἐλπίδων ἀγαθῶν πληροῦσθαι καὶ δυνάμεως εἰς δόξαν; καὶ τελευτῶν δὴ πάσης ὁ τοιοῦτος παρρησίας ὡς σοφὸς ὢν μεστοῦται καὶ ἐλευθερίας, πάσης δὲ ἀφοβίας, ὥστε εἰπεῖν τε ἀόκνως ὁτιοῦν, ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ πρᾶξαι;

• Some Effects of Wine
• Praise of Dionysus
• Wine
• The Power of Wine
• Effects of Wine

In order to have original, extraordinary, perhaps even immortal thoughts it suffices to alienate oneself so thoroughly from the world and things for a few moments that the most ordinary objects and events appear to one as entirely new and unfamiliar, thereby revealing their true nature.

Um originelle, außerordentliche, vielleicht gar unsterbliche Gedanken zu haben, ist es hinreichend, sich der Welt und den Dingen auf einige Augenblicke so gänzlich zu entfremden, daß Einem die allergewöhnlichsten Gegenstände und Vorgänge als völlig neu und unbekannt erscheinen, als wodurch eben ihr wahres Wesen sich ausschließt.

For Time changes the nature of the whole world, and one phase
Must be succeeded by the next; there is no thing that stays
The same. Everything flows. Nature makes everything alter,
For as one thing grows feeble with old age and starts to falter,
Another strengthens, emerging from obscurity.

mutat enim mundi naturam totius aetas
ex alioque alius status excipere omnia debet
nec manet ulla sui similis res: omnia migrant,        830
omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit.
namque aliud putrescit et aevo debile languet,
porro aliud succrescit et e contemptibus exit.

Not that God, the Lord and Creator of the universe, takes any delight in the rumbling of our intestines or the emptiness of our stomach or the inflammation of our lungs...

non quo deus, universitatis creator et dominus, intestinorum nostrorum rugitu et inanitate ventris pulmonumque delectetur ardore....

Everything a man does in the service of the state is contrary to his nature...

Alles, was ein Mensch im Dienste des Staates thut, geht wider seine Natur...

I hope succeeding generations will be able to be idle. I hope that nine tenths of their time will be leisure time; that they may enjoy their days, and the earth, and the beauty of this beautiful world; that they may rest by the sea and dream; that they may dance and sing and eat and drink.

• The Case for Inactivity
• Heatherlegh's Prescription
• Song of the Slackers
• A Fool
• Laziness as a Good Quality
• On Laziness
• To Loaf
• Kayf
• Slackers
• Planet of the Apes
• Ode to Indolence
• The More Idle, the More Deserving
• Work and Leisure
• Praise of Laziness
• Lazy Man's Song
• Exquisite Pregnant Idleness
• How Can I Work?
• Dolce Far Niente
• Weekdays of Unfreedom
• The Dreary Vacuum of Idleness
• Idleness and Business
• Archilochus on the Idle Life
• Idleness
• Futile Work
• Otium Cum Dignitate

A human baby's like a sailor washed up on a beach
By the battering of the surf, naked, lacking the power of speech,
Possessing no means of survival, when first Nature pours
Him forth with birth-pangs from his mother's womb upon Light's shores.
He fills the room up with his sorrowful squalls, and rightly so!
Just think what lies in store for him, Life's full supply of woe.

tum porro puer, ut saevis proiectus ab undis
navita, nudus humi iacet infans indigus omni
vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras
nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit,        225
vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequumst
cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum.

227 restet transire Lact. opif. 3.2 : re et transirest (transire est Q) Ω