Death is the victor, virtue's illusion;
Honor your fists with noses that catch them,
Punish the vices holding that smiling
Chin in its place. Deliver some anguish.
Render your foe—yes, bloody that sinner.
Hating the sin is easier. Better
Hammer the nails of wisdom to faces
Twisted with vices—silence those cowards!
Gaia's indifferent; caring for tombstones,
Blood from antagonists: doctrine's a bore.
“According to Aristotle, courage is a mean between rashness and cowardliness... Boxing provides practice with fear and with the right, attentive supervision, in quite manageable increments... While Aristotle is able to define courage, the study and practice of boxing can enable us to not only comprehend courage, but “to have and use” it.”
– GORDON MARINO, The New York Times, September 15, 2010
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/boxing-lessons/
“Two Afghans, at least one of them armed, were killed Thursday in another protest over a rumored burning of the Koran, Islam’s holy book, nearly a week after a fringe pastor in Florida who had incited widespread outrage over his plans to incinerate Korans in a 9/11 memorial bonfire canceled those plans. ”
– ROD NORDLAND, The New York Times, September 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/world/asia/17koran.htm
“Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of providence? But in truth they do exist and they do care for human things, and they have put all the means in a man's power to enable him not to fall into real evils. But death certainly, and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all these things equally happen to good men and bad, being things which make us neither better nor worse. Thus they are neither good nor evil.”
– Page 12, Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Translated by George Long; The Peter Pauper Press, 1957
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