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From: IVAN VALAREZO on 24 Jan 2008 16:05
if they could turn their eyes to the principles of
mathematics to which they are unused.

The reason, therefore, that some intuitive minds are not mathematical is
that they cannot at all turn their attention to the principles of
mathematics. But the reason that mathematicians are not intuitive is that
they do not see what is before them, and that, accustomed to the exact and
plain principles of mathematics, and not reasoning till they have well
inspected and arranged their principles, they are lost in matters of
intuition where the principles do not allow of such arrangement. They are
scarcely seen; they are felt rather than seen; there is the greatest
difficulty in making them felt by those who do not of themselves perceive
them. These principles are so fine and so numerous that a very delicate and
very clear sense is needed to perceive them, and to judge rightly and justly
when they are perceived, without for the most part being able to demonstrate
them in order as in mathematics, because the principles are not known to us
in the same way, and because it would be an endless matter to undertake it.
We must see the matter at once, at one glance, and not by a process of
reasoning, at least to a certain degree. And thus it is rare that
mathematicians are intuitive and that men of intuition are mathematicians,
because mathematicians wish to treat matters of intuition mathematically and
make themselves ridiculous, wishing to begin with definitions and then with
axioms, which is not the way to proceed in this kind of reasoning. Not that
the mind does not do so, but it does it tacitly, naturally, and without
technical rules; for the expression of it is beyond all men, and only a few
can feel it.


From: IVAN VALAREZO on 24 Jan 2008 14:00
"I am fair,
therefore I must be feared. I am strong, therefore I must be loved. I am...

Tyranny is the wish to have in one way what can only be had in another. We
render different duties to different merits; the duty of love to the
pleasant; the duty of fear to the strong; duty of belief to the learned.

We must render these duties; it is unjust to refuse them, and unjust to ask
others. And so it is false and tyrannical to say, "He is not strong,
therefore I will not esteem him; he is not able, therefore I will not fear
him."

333. Have you never seen people who, in order to complain of the little fuss
you make about them, parade before you the example of great men who esteem
them? In answer I reply to them, "Show me the merit whereby you have charmed
these persons, and I also will esteem you."

334. The reason of effects.--Lust and force are the source of all our
actions; lust causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.

335. The reason of effects.--It is, then, true to say that all the world is
under a delusion; for, although the opinions of the people are sound, they
are not so as conceived by them, since they think the truth to be where it
is not. Truth is indeed in their opinions, but not at the point where they
imagine it. Thus it is true that we must honour noblemen, but not because
noble birth is real superiority, etc.

336. The reason of effects.--We must keep our thought secret, and judge
everything by it, while talking like the people.

337. The reason of effects. Degrees. The people honour persons of high
birth. The semi-learned despise them, saying that birth is not a personal,
but a chance superiority. The learned honour them, not for popular rea


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