367 A: Is it more pleasant without the obstacle? B: Yes, but before I discovered that it was an obstacle, I was content. There was no inconvenience, and therefore, there was no obstacle. A: But if it is “better” without the obstacle, wouldn’t it be wise to look for other comfortable, and therefore invisible obstacles everywhere? A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism
121 A government that leads the people is not a government by the people. A government by the people lacks initiative. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism
143 The end proposed decides the beginning. In consciousness, it is the end that arrives first. We travel as inchworms. The end has set itself forward, and it is the beginning that then curls up and joins the ending. We say that a cause produces an effect and therefore “precedes” it, but we realize that the proposed effect is a behavioral cause, a stimulus that is itself an additional means by which we plant the “goal” down and then muster all necessary “means” toward it. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism