Preview

Of Drunkenness

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3559 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Of Drunkenness
THE world is nothing but variety and dissemblance: vices are all alike, as they are vices, and peradventure the Stoic understand them so; but although they are equally vices, yet they are not at all equal vices; and he who has transgressed the ordinary bounds of a hundred paces,

"Quos ultra, citraque nequit consistere rectum," should not be in a worse condition than he that has advanced but ten, is not to be believed; or that sacrilege is not worse than stealing a cabbage:
"Nec vincet ratio hoc, tantumdem ut peccet, idemque, Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti, Et qui nocturnus divum sacua legerit."
There is in this as great diversity is in anything whatever. The confounding of the order and measure of sins is dangerous: murderers, traitors, and tyrants get too much by it, and it is not reasonable they should flatter their consciences, because another man is idle, lascivious, or not assiduous at his devotion. Every one lays weight upon the sin of his companions, but lightens his own. Our very instructors themselves rank them sometimes, in my opinion, very ill. As Socrates said that the principal office of wisdom was to distinguish good from evil, we, the best of whom are vicious, ought also to say the same of the science of distinguishing between vice and vice, without which, and that very exactly performed, the virtuous and the wicked will remain confounded and unrecognized.
Now, among the rest, drunkenness seems to me to be a gross and brutish vice. The soul has greater part in the rest, and there are some vices that have something, if a man may so say, of generous in them; there are vices wherein there is a mixture of knowledge, diligence, valor, prudence, dexterity and address; this one is totally corporeal and earthly. And the rudest nation this day in Europe is that alone where it is in fashion. Other vices discompose the understanding: this totally overthrows it and renders the body stupid.

"Cum vini vis penetravit... Consequitur gravitas

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    A Stoic is a person who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain. One who is not touched by the outside world seem to live inside themselves always thinking that today might be the last. Stoics detach themselves from things of this worlds including objects, people, and to a certain extent their own lives. In Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations and Epictetus’ Discourses they both explain how to properly be a stoic, learning to deny their feelings, respect themselves and nature, and detach themselves from the useless things of this world.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    a. Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea – conduct does not make a man guilty without a guilty mind…

    • 991 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Some observations regarding “Stuctures of Sin” are they can be traced back to personal sin, they are the result of different individuals and selfishness is the basic attitude.…

    • 2836 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Praxis Chapter 6 Summary

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages

    11. Structure of sin: The individuals’ decisions that contribute to the social structure that block…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Suffering and Epicurus

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Epicurus was a hedonist, a materialist and a consequentialist who strongly believed that in order to attain the good life one must live a pleasant existence free of worry and pain. Through reflection of the concepts in Epicurus’s Letter to Menoeceus this paper will discuss Epicurus’s argument of why ‘death means nothing to us’ (Epicurus 1998a, p.49). In other words, the concept that one should not fear death, which he held to be a state of fear bringing only pain to one’s life. In addition, the notion of applying these concepts for ethical purposes on how one should live their life will be explained. In conclusion, this paper will provide a compelling argument of the reasons why Epicurus’s ideas on being fearless of death did indeed contribute to the alleviation of pain and helped with the pursuit of happiness or ataraxia (peace of mind).…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Adversity In Night

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Racing their way down the ramshackle streets of an all-American slum, two young boys hurry home. Next-door-neighbors on the seedy side of town, the two children share fears, sorrows, and joys. Yet while one boy will attend a prestigious medical school, his friend will join the gang down the street. In their diverging paths, these boys challenge common beliefs about adversity. One such belief belongs to Roman poet Horace. Says the philosopher, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” In the case of the first boy, Horace’s assertion holds true, but his friend’s case reveals its falsehood. Adversity, then, is a fickle matter; one cannot predict whether an adverse experience will…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The actions of the Stoics should lead to peace as well, therefore they are to keep unpleasant speech, thoughts and behaviors at bay (Arrian 137). Arrian states that as Stoic philosophers act in this manner, they will be subject to persecution because their beliefs and way of life are contrary to the Greek culture of pleasure and indulgence (137). The Stoics are also to see death indifferently and the Greek culture as undesired, as Arrian infers, meanwhile creating a simple, low standard of life, which embraces poverty through rejecting materialism and maintains a proper character (137). In addition, the continuation of life and their character within the Greek culture is also important. Pride is a trait that is shunned in Stoic philosophy, and thus Stoics are to humbly accept any position in society, whether it be due to social constructs such as one’s profession, race, age, or gender, or by Nature’s choice (Arrian 138).…

    • 1210 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Deviance is a word that has instinctively bad connotations around it, to know someone that is deviant is to know someone who has acted in an unacceptable manner. However, who are we to judge, in whose eyes makes a particular act deviant, and who makes the rules around deviance? These questions formulate the answer to why a ‘society of saints’ is an unattainable goal (Roach Anleu 2006, p17). Theories to why humans act out in different ways, has been disputed since the 1800’s, and no exact answer is available to this question. With all of the studies that have been performed, no one group has come up with an exact reason to why people behave deviantly, or what permits one person to label an action deviant. There is no exact definition or answer, why deviance exists, or created in societies (Southern Cross University Study Guide, p.10). However, the psychological perspective, biological perspective, and the sociological perspective, may help determine social processes and phenomena’s.…

    • 2133 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Everyone has at least one personal flaw that somehow overcomes or defeats them in a certain place in time. In this essay, two characters of completely different fields will be put side by side to compare their own tragic flaws. On one hand, Sophocles’ Oedipus is proud, arrogant and persistent; while on the other hand, Eliot’s Prufrock is self conscious, insecure, and indecisive. While the two characters are complete polar opposites, they also share a devastating similarity: they are paranoid and in fear of their own fate.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alcohol appears frequently in Poe’s stories, usually connected to some following violent act or event: ” One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vindication of the Right

    • 4547 Words
    • 19 Pages

    From the respect paid to property flow, as from a poisoned fountain, most of the evils and vices which render this world such a dreary scene to the contemplative mind. For it is in the most polished society that noisome reptiles and venomous serpents lurk under the rank herbage; and there is voluptuousness pampered by the still sultry air, which relaxes every good disposition before it ripens into virtue.…

    • 4547 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Long Road to Recovery

    • 2877 Words
    • 12 Pages

    my caliber. The other end of the spectrum that I hold to be truer, yet still don’t agree completely with, is the view of the Amoralist. “The alcoholic must also understand that he is not responsible for the things he said or did when he was drinking. The physical addiction controlled his behavior, and because he is powerless over the addiction, he cannot be held responsible for it” (Gary, 1999). My purpose in this essay is give my first-hand experience of the pain and despair that the…

    • 2877 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For I have some sense of what is fair; and my heart is not made of iron. I know what pity is” (V.185-190).…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Addiction Group Analysis

    • 1787 Words
    • 8 Pages

    “I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”…

    • 1787 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    United States. Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs. Ferentzy, Peter. From Sin to disease: differences and similarities between past and current conceptions of chronic drunkenness Federal Legal Publications 2001.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics