Minds

A relatively little-known facet of Leibniz’s intellectual activity was his deep interest in Chinese civilisation and culture, based on the earliest Chinese philosophical writings, which he accessed through Jesuit missionaries.

O Fortune like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing, ever waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts them like ice. [in the original Latin: O Fortuna velut luna statu variabilis semper crescis aut decrescis vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, … Continued

Sometime in the 1930’s, renown English writer Somerset Maugham wrote a mysterious epigraph. The short text was written as an opening for John O’Hara’s most famous work, published as Appointment in Samarra.