The Top Five: Reader Selections from “Essays: De Rerum Natura”
1. On Duality
Explores “Your greatest weakness = your greatest strength taken too far.” Vices as virtues. “A harmless man isn’t good; A good man is a dangerous man who has that under control.”
References: Plutarch, Nietzsche, La Rochefoucauld, Jung
2. On Passion
Explores the see-saw of passion versus reason + The “war against self” that every man fights + Frameworks for thinking about your own emotional self-control.
References: Lord Chesterfield, Baltasar Gracian, Plutarch, Seneca, Cicero
3. On Energy
Exploring how “energy never lies.” The limitations of language and the conscious mind to process emotion. Blind faith and trusting your gut instinct in measuring the character of others.
References: James Allen, Oscar Wilde, Leopardi
4. On Religion
Exploring some intellectual and philosophical approaches to God, and how the attitudes of various men towards God (Voltaire, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky) evolved through the seasons of their lives.
References: Pascal, Bertrand Russell, 2Pac
5. On Pain & Pleasure
Exploring happiness and fulfillment thru the lenses of duality, desire and boredom. Less input from me, more pulling at common threads from history’s greatest thinkers.
References: Epicurus, Seneca, Schopenhauer, Pascal
Learn more about “Essays: De Rerum Natura” here, or purchase the new paperback edition on
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