The result is that you cannot think of anyone as human whom you see transformed by wickedness.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, IV.iii, p.94

Men who give up the common goal of all things that exist, thereby cease to exist themselves. Some may perhaps think it strange that we say that wicked men, who form the majority of men, do not exist; but that is how it is. I am not trying to deny the wickedness of the wicked; what I do deny is that their existence is absolute and complete existence. Just as you might call a corpse a dead man, but couldn't simply call it a man ... A thing exists when it keeps its proper place and preserves its own nature. Anything which departs from this ceases to exist, because its existence depends on the preservation of its nature.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, IV.ii, p.91

What the end of all things was. For certainly it is the same as that which all things desire; we have deduced that that is goodness, and so we must agree that the end of all things is the good.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, III.xi, p.77

For bad fortune, I think, is more use to a man than good fortune. Good fortune always seems to bring happiness, but deceives you with her smiles, whereas bad fortune is always truthful because by change she shows her true fickleness. Good fortune deceives, but bad fortune enlightens.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, II.viii, p.44

And lastly we may reach the same conclusion about Fortune as a whole. She has nothing worth pursuing, and no trace of intrinsic good; she never associates with good men and does not turn into good men those with whom she does associate.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, II.vi, p.40

If happiness is the highest good of rational nature and anything that can be taken away is not the highest good - since it is surpassed by what can't be taken away - Fortune by her very mutability can't hope to lead to happiness.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, II.iv, p.31

So nothing is miserable except when you think it so, and vice versa, all luck is good luck to the man who bears it with equanimity.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, II.iv, p.31

You are a happy man, then, if you know where your true happiness lies, since when the chief concern of mortal men is to keep their hold on life, you even now possess blessings which no one can doubt are more precious than life itself. So dry your tears. Fortune has not yet turned her hatred against all your blessings. The storm has not yet broken upon you with too much violence. Your anchors are holding firm and they permit you both comfort in the present and hope in the future.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, II.iv, p.30

How can it be then, that you know the beginning of things but don't know their end? The peculiarity of these disturbances is that they have just enough power to move a man from his usual position, but can't quite throw him over and totally uproot him.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, i.VI, p.20

creation is the foundation of philosophy.

I would have replied with the same retort as Canius made to the Emperor Caligula when he was accused of being involved in a plot against him. 'If I had known of it,' he said, 'you would not.'

beothius, consolation of philosophy, i.IV, p.12

awesome.

It is nothing serious, only a touch of amnesia that he is suffering, the common disease of deluded minds. He has forgotten for a while who he is, but he will soon remember once he has recognized me. To make it easier for him I will wipe a little of the blinding cloud of worldly concern from his eyes.

boethius, consolation of philosophy, i.II, p.6

At the sight of the Muses of Poetry at my bedside dictating words to accompany my tears she became angry.

"Who," she demanded, her piercing eyes alight with fire, "has allowed these hysterical sluts to approach this sick man's beside?"

boethius, consolation of philosophy, i.I, pg.4

heh. philosophy is a true woman. capon would be proud.