Quote of the Day...

"Triangles can never be non-triangular, and rocks are always guranteed to be rocky, grass grassy, and dogs doggy--but humans can be inhuman. We alone can fail to achieve our nature. Our nature is a task to achieve, not a fact to receive... (Kreeft, The Philosophy of Tolkein, 108). Virtue is an important part of what it is to be human. Anyone whom you find transfored by vice cannot be counted a man. Gollum is an ex-Hobbit, a failed Hobbit, Ringwraiths are ex-men.

The treacherous conspirator who steals by fraud may be likened to a fox; the man who is ruled by intemperate anger is thought to have the soul of a lion. The fearful and timid man who trembles without reason is like a deer; the lazy, stupid fellow is like an ass. The volatile, inconstant man who continually changes direction is like a bird; the man who is sunk in foul lust is trapped in the pleasures of a filthy sow. In this way, anyone who abandons virtue ceases to be a man, since he cannot share in the divine nature, and instead becomes a beast. (Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, 82-3)