FELICITY, therefore (by which we mean continual delight), consisteth not in having prospered, but in prospering [Stoat]

I can never ever find this quote when I want it. But, I’ve got a blog. So now I will be able to find it. It is from Hobbes of course; but Elements not Leviathan – though there’s a similar passage in Leviathan which I can’t find just now. Here’s the full quote in context, from Chapter 7: Of Delight and Pain; Good and Evil

Seeing all delight is appetite, and appetite presupposeth a farther end, there can be no contentment but in proceeding: and therefore we are not to marvel, when we see, that as men attain to more riches, honours, or other power; so their appetite continually groweth more and more; and when they are come to the utmost degree of one kind of power, they pursue some other, as long as in any kind they think themselves behind any other. Of those therefore that have attained to the highest degree of honour and riches, some have affected mastery in some art; as Nero in music and poetry, Commodus in the art of a gladiator. And such as affect not some such thing, must find diversion and recreation of their thoughts in the contention either of play, or business. And men justly complain as of a great grief, that they know not what to do. FELICITY, therefore (by which we mean continual delight), consisteth not in having prospered, but in prospering.

This naturally enough is relevant to modern economics; see for example Timmy though I’m not impressed by his “a long standing postulate of mine”, especially since I pointed out the Hobbes quote to him in 2012. Ah, such is the memory of man.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/29myUvZ

I can never ever find this quote when I want it. But, I’ve got a blog. So now I will be able to find it. It is from Hobbes of course; but Elements not Leviathan – though there’s a similar passage in Leviathan which I can’t find just now. Here’s the full quote in context, from Chapter 7: Of Delight and Pain; Good and Evil

Seeing all delight is appetite, and appetite presupposeth a farther end, there can be no contentment but in proceeding: and therefore we are not to marvel, when we see, that as men attain to more riches, honours, or other power; so their appetite continually groweth more and more; and when they are come to the utmost degree of one kind of power, they pursue some other, as long as in any kind they think themselves behind any other. Of those therefore that have attained to the highest degree of honour and riches, some have affected mastery in some art; as Nero in music and poetry, Commodus in the art of a gladiator. And such as affect not some such thing, must find diversion and recreation of their thoughts in the contention either of play, or business. And men justly complain as of a great grief, that they know not what to do. FELICITY, therefore (by which we mean continual delight), consisteth not in having prospered, but in prospering.

This naturally enough is relevant to modern economics; see for example Timmy though I’m not impressed by his “a long standing postulate of mine”, especially since I pointed out the Hobbes quote to him in 2012. Ah, such is the memory of man.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/29myUvZ