"They don't understand that a true captain must pay attention to the seasons of the year, the sky, the stars, the winds, and all that pertains to his craft if he's really to be the ruler of a ship. And they don't believe there is any craft that would enable him to determine how he should steer the ship, whether the others want him to or not, or any possibility of mastering this alleged craft or of practicing it at the same time as the craft of navigation. Don't you think that the true captain will be called a real stargazer, a babbler, and a good-for-nothing by those who sail in ships governed in that way . . . ? "
"So that what gives truth to the things known and the power to know to the knower is the form of the good. And though it is the cause of knowledge and truth, it is also an object of knowledge." "Accustom yourself to the belief that death is of no concern to us, since all good and evil lie in sensation and sensation ends with death. Therefore the true belief that death is nothing to us makes a mortal life happy, not by adding to it an infinite time, but by taking away the desire for immortality." (Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus 2) "If these claims are correct, and we should assume that happiness is doing well, then the best life, whether for a whole city-state collectively or for an individual, would be a life of action." (Aristotle, Politics 197) Hence the result of the whole discussion has been that I know nothing at all. For I know not what justice is, and therefore I am not likely to know whether it is or is not a virtue, nor can I say whether the just man is happy or unhappy. Pg 31 Socrates to Thrasymcachus "Let us sin now, to avoid possible sin in the future" Pg 36 Augustine "They were struck with humiliation and wretchedness, and they incurred the wrath of God because they persistently rejected His messages and killed prophets contrary to all that is right. All this was because they disobeyed and were lawbreakers." Pg 9 sura 2:61 "Say, 'If you possessed the very stores of my Lord's bounty, you would hold them back in your fear of giving: man is ever grudging.' In the past, We gave Moses nine clear signs ask the Children of Israel. When Moses came to [the Egyptians], Pharaoh said to him, 'Moses, I think you are bewitched.' He said, 'You know very well that only the Lord of the heavens and earth could have sent these signs as clear proof. I think that you, Pharaoh, are doomed.' " - (Qur'an 17:104, 100 through 102) "Happiness seems, however, even if it is not god-sent but comes as a result of virtue and some process of learning and training, to be among the most godlike things; for that which is the prize and the end of virtue seems to be the best thing in the world, and something godlike and blessed." Aristotle, NE.
"Among the things commonly held just, that which has proved itself useful in men's mutual relationships has the stamp of justice whether or not it be the same for all; if anyone makes a law and it does not pr...
