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Jacob V.
https://www.goodreads.com/jacobverville
Were the foraging peoples who preceded the agricultural revolution and the creation of cities “savages”? Or were they “noble savages”? The editors of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunter Gatherers are Rousseauvians to a man, who feel that
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“The fight against Nature is hopeless and yet — it will be fought out to the bitter end.”
― Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life
― Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life
“The greater one's purity, the more clearly one sees how much one sins; and the more one sins, the more benighted one is, even though one may appear to be pure. Again, the more knowledge one has, the more one thinks oneself ignorant; and the more one is ignorant of one's ignorance and of the shortcomings in one's spiritual knowledge, the more one thinks one knows. The more the spiritual contestant endures afflictions, the more he will defeat the enemy; and, lastly, the more one tries for one day to do something good, the more one is a debtor all the days of one's life, as St Mark has said; for even if the ability and desire to do good are one's own the grace to do it comes from God. It is only because of this grace that we are able to do anything good; when we do it, then, what have we to boast about?”
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“We should look on man with wonder, conscious that his intellect, being infinite, is the image of the invisible God; and that even if it is for a time limited by the body, as St Basil says, it can embrace all form, just as God's providence embraces the whole universe. For the intellect has the ability to transform itself into everything, and is dyed with the form of the object it apprehends. But when it is taken up into God, who is formless and imageless, it becomes formless and imageless itself. Then we should marvel at how the intellect can preserve any thought or idea, and how an earlier thought need not be modified by later thoughts, or a later thought injured by earlier ones. On the contrary, the mind like a treasure-house tirelessly stores all thoughts. And these thoughts, whether new or long held in store, the intellect when it wishes can express in language; yet although words are always coming from it, it is never exhausted.”
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“If this pious ardor which consumed the prince had its dangers, in that it quickly led to intolerance and persecution, yet it was not without grandeur; since the progress of civilization always follows evangelization.”
― A History of the Eastern Roman Empire - Book I of III
― A History of the Eastern Roman Empire - Book I of III
“Every tribulation that we accept patiently is good and profitable; but if we do not accept it patiently, it drives us away from God and serves no useful purpose. When this happens, there is only one cure-humility. The humble man censures and blames himself and no one else when he suffers affliction. Consequently, he patiently awaits for God to release him, and when this happens he rejoices and gratefully endures whatever comes; and through his experience of these things he gains spiritual knowledge. Recognizing his own ignorance and weakness, he seeks diligently for the Physician and, seeking, he finds Him, as Christ himself has said (cf. Matt. 7:8). Having found God, he longs for Him; and the more he longs, the more God longs for him. Then, purifying himself as much as he can, he struggles to make room in himself for the Beloved for whom he longs. And the Beloved for whom he longs, finding room for Himself in this man, takes up His abode there, as the Gerontikon says. Dwelling there. He protects His home, and fills it with light. And the person thus filled with light knows and, knowing, he is known, as St John of Damaskos says.”
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Jacob’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Jacob’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
6,209 books
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1,839 friends
375 books
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35 friends
242 books
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23 friends
158 books
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52 friends
116 books
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19 friends
315 books
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26 friends
436 books
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1,152 friends
152 books
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74 friends
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