The Laws of Human Nature

by Robert Greene

Athens

Democratic commercial and naval power. It was Sparta’s archenemy and led a league of democratic states. Under Pericles it had a golden age. After him came the Syracuse disaster and final defeat in 405 BC.

Sparta

Athens’ archenemy and opposite: a military state leading a confederation of oligarchies (the Peloponnesians) and relying on its army. Its ultimatum in 432 BC pushed Athens toward war. Pericles thought Athens could not beat it on land.

Syracuse

Rising Sicilian power and key Spartan ally. Athens launched its 415 BC expedition to add to its empire and cut off Sparta’s resources. Spartan reinforcements arrived, and the expedition was wiped out.

Nicias

Athenian commander on the Sicilian expedition (415 BC). He doubted the plan and listed the negatives, but that backfired: the Assembly decided a larger force was needed. His later letter asking to withdraw or reinforce led to a second armada, and both were destroyed.

Pericles

Athenian leader who rose around 463 BC by allying with the lower and middle classes. He built the Parthenon, spoke in a restrained, logical style, and served nous (mind). He never decided under strong emotion, and sometimes retreated alone for days to calm down.

Athena

Goddess of wisdom and practical intelligence, “the voice that comes to heroes in times of need.” For Pericles she was the embodiment of rationality. “Inner Athena” is the rational self you cultivate.

Dostoyevsky, A Raw Youth

“It’s just as though one’s second self were standing beside one; one is sensible and rational oneself, but the other self is impelled to do something perfectly senseless, and sometimes very funny; and suddenly you notice that you are longing to do that amusing thing, goodness knows why; that is, you want to, as it were, against your will; though you fight against it with all of your might, you want to.“

Nietzsche on feelings

“‘Trust your feelings!‘—But feelings are nothing final or original; behind

feelings there stand judgments and evaluations which we inherit in the

form of . . . inclinations, aversions. . . . The inspiration born of a feeling is

the grandchild of a judgment—and often of a false judgment!—and in any

event not a child of your own! To trust one’s feelings—means to give more

obedience to one’s grandfather and grandmother and their grandparents

than to the gods which are in us: our reason and our experience.“