JKR and the Classics
In her Harvard speach The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination Ms Rowling said/writes i.a.:
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly ( Read more... )
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly ( Read more... )
Comments 15
According to Gigaquote
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
[Lat., Quomodo fabula, sic vita: non quam diu, sed quam bene acta sit, refert.]
- Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca), Epistles
(LXXXVII)
Bizarrely, that Epistle seems to be titled: "On the Taking of One's Own Life."
The complete text is Here and translated differently:
"It is with life as it is with a play, - it matters not how long the action is spun out, but how good the acting is. {dying_in_play+} It makes no difference at what point you stop. Stop whenever you choose; only see to it that the closing period is well turned. Farewell."
That whole Epistle reminds me of Dumbledore telling Snape he has to perform a mercy killing. Interesting, indeed.
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It's possible Here in Plutarch's Morals.
I thought I might find a reference to in Ralph Waldo Emerison who wrote an essay (a lecture actually) about Plutarch. It doesn't seem to be there, but interestingly, Emerson compares Plutarch to Seneca. Link Here
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Perhaps once again due to some ineptitude on my side: I didn't find the quotation there (nor here.
But: you already solved half the riddle, where I solved none.
Thanks again!
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Lot's of thanks again!
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I agree: I also have difficulties to consider this as something which could have been written "as is" in antiquity (see here).
In some of its aspects it sounds Kantian or "popular Kantian": the way we perceive the world depends on our mental etc. frame, and if that were changed: our perception of the world (which for Kant still exists "outside") would be changed too, and hence also the world as we perceive it, which for us is the world. And yes: e.g. Heisenberg was very much interested in Kant ( ... )
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Interesting that the man who formed the 'uncertainty principle' was so interested in determinist philosophy.
I was trying to find a source for this quote as well. Have not located one yet but see that it is ascribed to Otto Rank as well. Wonder if she got that wrong.
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The way I see it: Most philosophers of all times (perhaps even all philosophers of all times except Platonists and neo-objectivists) would have agreed that "The world necessarily appears to us as we are".
Concerning Kant and Heisenberg: Kant was only a partial determinist and it was Einstein (and to some degree Planck) who had some fundamental belief in determinism, Heisenberg (perhaps because he was younger) seems to have suffered less from the change to non-determinist physics.
The quote might be from Otto Rank who might have quoted/alluded to something by Plutarch. Or there is some "modernist" translation of something by Plutarch out there. Or there is some other (ps-Plutarch or ps-Rank) source. Or JKR got it wrong. Or there is some other solution.
I'm still puzzled.
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