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Boethius had been the most powerful man in Rome after the emperor. He was falsely accused of treason and awaiting execution. In his cell, he wrote the book that would sustain a continent through the Dark Ages. Lady Philosophy appeared and asked: did you ever truly possess the things you have lost? He realised he never had. And in that realisation, discovered what could never be taken.
Confucius spent thirteen years wandering from state to state, seeking a ruler who would implement his vision of just governance. No ruler would. Once, surrounded by soldiers for five days with no food, his students despaired. He played the lute. The noble man in hardship holds his ground. The small man in hardship loses himself.
A Cherokee grandfather told his grandson: there is a battle inside every person between two wolves. One is anger, envy, arrogance, resentment. The other is joy, peace, love, humility, truth. The grandson asked which one wins. The grandfather said: the one you feed. Three words. The whole of moral psychology.
A wolf was terrorising the town of Gubbio. Francis walked out alone to meet it. He spoke to it. The wolf lowered its head and placed its paw in Francis's hand. The creature that everyone feared had been hungry. Nobody had thought to ask.
The parable is known as the Prodigal Son. But it is the father's story. He sees his son while he is yet a great way off — and he runs. The dignified patriarch of a prosperous house, abandoning dignity, running toward the returning failure. This is the image that has endured two thousand years.
The fourteenth century German mystic said: God is not good. I am good. If I called God good I would be doing God an injustice. He was tried for heresy. The charges arrived after his death. He had already disappeared into the desert of the Godhead he spent his life describing.
Guru Nanak was told to pray facing Mecca. He slept with his feet pointing toward Mecca. The qazi was furious. Nanak said: turn my feet to where God is not. They turned his feet in every direction. Mecca moved with them.
An anthropologist placed a basket of fruit near a tree and told a group of African children the first one there could have it all. The children joined hands and ran together. When asked why, they said: Ubuntu. How can one of us be happy if all the others are sad? Three words. The whole of social philosophy.
Nelson Mandela walked out of Robben Island after 27 years with his fist raised and his step steady. What almost nobody knows: the night before, he had thanked his jailer. Not ironically. Bitterness is a second prison. He had served enough time.