🚀 go-pugleaf

all the functions of the soul, as well as work does;
but we do not draw therefrom the same conclusions against the greatness of
man, because it is against his will. And although we bring it on ourselves,
it is nevertheless against our will that we sneeze. It is not in view of the
act itself; it is for another end. And thus it is not a proof of the
weakness of man and of his slavery under that action.

It is not disgraceful for man to yield to pain, and it is disgraceful to
yield to pleasure. This is not because pain comes to us from without, and we
ourselves seek pleasure; for it is possible to seek pain, and yield to it
purposely, without this kind of baseness. Whence comes it, then, that reason
thinks it honourable to succumb under stress of pain, and disgraceful to
yield to the attack of pleasure? It is because pain does not tempt and
attract us. It is we ourselves who choose it voluntarily, and will it to
prevail over us. So that we are masters of the situation; and in this man
yields to himself. But in pleasure it is man who yields to pleasure. Now
only mastery and sovereignty bring glory, and only slavery brings shame.

161. Vanity.--How wonderful it is that a thing so evident as the vanity of
the world is so little known, that it is a strange and surprising thing to
say that it is foolish to seek greatness?

162. He who will know fully the vanity of man has only to consider the
causes and effects of love. The cause is a je ne sais quoi (Corneille), and
the effects are dreadful. This je ne sais quoi, so small an object that we
cannot recognise it, agitates a whole country, princes, armies, the entire
world.

Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would
have been altered.

163. Vanity.--The cause and the effects of love: Cleopatra.

164. He who does not see the vanity of the world is himself very vain.
Indeed who do