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| Giambattista Vico (b. June 23, 1668 — d. January 22-23, 1744) |
"Jove hurls his bolts and fells the giants, and every gentile nation had its Jove.” [p.72]
“The human mind is naturally impelled to take delight in uniformity.” [p.73]
“In every [other] pursuit men without natural aptitude succeed by obstinate study of technique, but he who is not a poet by nature can never become one by art.” [p.75]
“Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance.” [p.78]
“The nature of peoples is first crude, then severe, then benign, then delicate, finally dissolute.” [p.79]
“Governments must conform to the nature of the of the men governed.” [p.79]
“It is a mark of the strong not to lose by sloth what they have gained by valor. Rather do they yield, from necessity or for utility, as little as that can and bit by bit.” [p.81]
“Honor is the noblest stimulus to military valor.” [p.84]
“The weak want laws; the powerful withhold them; the ambitious, to win a following, advocate them; princes, to equalize the strong with the weak, protect them.” [p.84]
* The New Science of Giambattista Vico, Cornell University Press, 1984
[Amended and expanded 13 November 2023]
