Ovid.
Ovid, in his elegiac poem Remedia Amoris (‘Remedies for Love’), writes (Ov. rem. 89–94, transl. J. H. Mozley):
Quale sit id, quod amas, celeri circumspice mente,
et tua laesuro subtrahe colla iugo.
Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur,
cum mala per longas convaluere moras.
Sed propera, nec te venturas differ in horas;
qui non est hodie, cras minus aptus erit.
Consider in swift thought what kind of thing it is you love, and withdraw your neck from a yoke that may one day gall. Resist beginnings; too late is the medicine prepared, when the disease has gained strength by long delay. Ay, and make haste, nor wait on the coming hours; he who is not ready to-day will be less so to-morrow.
We have been warned.
The Petrified Muse 
Dear Peter,
No argument with the post, but TEN in line 93 should of course read TE.
Vale.
Daniel
On 30 January 2017 at 09:27, The Petrified Muse wrote:
> Peter Kruschwitz posted: ” Ovid, in his elegiac poem Remedia Amoris > (‘Remedies for Love’), writes (Ov. rem. 89–94, transl. J. H. Mozley): Quale > sit id, quod amas, celeri circumspice mente, et tua laesuro subtrahe colla > iugo. Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur, cum mala per l” >
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Oops. Fixed it now.
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It is very important to be able to say NO, while saying yes is always much more simple of course.
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“Resist beginnings”: I assume which beginning you are thinking of with this classical warning – “Wehret den Anfängen” in German – a sentence which was been used in several and controversial occasions.
Philosophically, reading this, my first association is Hannah Arendts appreciation of beginnings in the human condition. Although and perhaps because there are a lot of causes to resist certain beginnings, there seem to be beginnings of different kind as well like civic involvement and solidarity.
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You are quite right, there are beginnings that made me think of this – but on reading the actual passage in its context I enjoyed its openness to interpretation, which is why I refrained from elaborating a personal viewpoint.
I will now go and re-read some Hannah Arendt: thank you for this!
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How to resist, that is the question. And how to stay sane in the face of the relentless onslaught of alt facts, news and fake news.
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Like CNN.
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