BOOK II. XV. 16-XVI. 2
but on this point I have made my decision." "Anything else" indeed! Why, what is more important or more to your advantage than to be convinced that it is not sufficient for a man merely to have reached decisions, and to refuse to change? These are the sinews of madness, not health. "If you force me to this, I would gladly die." What for, man? What has happened? "I have decided!" It was fortunate for me that you did not decide to kill me![1] Or again, another says, "I take no money for my services."[2] Why so? "Because I have decided." Rest assured that there is nothing to prevent you from some day turning irrationally to taking money for your services, and that with the same vehemence with which you now refuse to take it, and then saying again, "I have decided"; 20precisely as in a diseased body, suffering from a flux, the flux inclines now in this direction and now in that. Such is also the sick mind; it is uncertain which way it is inclined, but when vehemence also is added to this inclination and drift, then the evil gets past help and past cure.
CHAPTER XVI
That we do not practise the application of our judgements about things good and evil
Wherein lies the good?—In moral purpose.—Wherein lies evil?—In moral purpose.—Wherein lies that which is neither good nor evil?—In the things that lie outside the domain of moral purpose.—Well, what of it? Does any one of us remember these statements outside the classroom? Does any
