🚀 go-pugleaf

conquering the world. Such sport was good for Augustus or Alexander. They
were still young men and thus difficult to restrain. But Caesar should have
been more mature.

133. Two faces which resemble each other make us laugh, when together, by
their resemblance, though neither of them by itself makes us laugh.

134. How useless is painting, which attracts admiration by the resemblance
of things, the originals of which we do not admire!

135. The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. We love to see animals
fighting, not the victor infuriated over the vanquished. We would only see
the victorious end; and, as soon as it comes, we are satiated. It is the
same in play, and the same in the search for truth. In disputes we like to
see the clash of opinions, but not at all to contemplate truth when found.
To observe it with pleasure, we have to see it emerge out of strife. So in
the passions, there is pleasure in seeing the collision of two contraries;
but when one acquires the mastery, it becomes only brutality. We never seek
things for themselves, but for the search. Likewise in plays, scenes which
do not rouse the emotion of fear are worthless, so are extreme and hopeless
misery, brutal lust, and extreme cruelty.

136. A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.

137. Without examining every particular pursuit, it is enough to comprehend
them under diversion.

138. Men naturally slaters and of all callings, save in their own rooms.

139. Diversion.--When I have occasionally set myself to consider the
different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose
themselves at court or in war, whence arise so many quarrels, passions, bold
and often bad ventures, etc., I have discovered that all the unhappiness of
men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own
chamber. A man who has enough to live on, if he knew how to stay with
pleasure at home, would not leave