culture – Parmenidean

Book Review: Phèdre by Jean Racine

How this striking classic of the French stage has much to tell us about the Classical world and our world.

“The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God.”
– Psalms 52:1

“He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is…”

– F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Whence comes the Innovator’s authority to pick and choose?”
– C. S. Lewis

“Beneath the rule of men entirely great / The pen is mightier than the sword.”

– Richelieu; Or, the Conspiracy II. 2.

“There will be no lack of Christian daring / In this little house of Portugal.”

– The Lusíads VII. 14.

E pluribus unum?

“Grief everywhere, Everywhere terror, and all shapes of death.”
– Aeneid II. 490-491

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Canst thou draw out the leviathan with a hook, or canst thou tie his tongue with a cord?”

– Job 40:20