Nihil admirari , or Nih admirari (translated from lat. - “do not be surprised at anything,” passive infinitive) is a Latin phrase that can be translated into Russian with the expression “do not be surprised at anything,” “let nothing surprise you.” The phrase carries shades of stoic restraint, equanimity, calmness and dispassion, even snobbery.
Origin
Mark Tullius Cicero argued that real wisdom consists in preparing oneself for all possible incidents and in the ability to not be surprised at anything, citing as an example Anaxagoras , who, when he was informed of his son’s death, said: “Sciebam me genuisse mortalem” (I knew that conceived a mortal) [1] . Horace and Seneca also referred to such cases and admired such moral strength of mind [2] [3] . Nietzsche wrote that in this proposal the ancient philosopher “sees the whole philosophy”, contrasting it with the Schopenhauer admirari id est philosophari (“philosophy of surprise”) [4] .
Romanian and French thinker-essayist Emil Michel Choran in his work “Bitter Syllogisms” (1952) quotes the phrase and criticizes the stability of the moral principle as such: “True Stoicism: be committed to the principle of Nil admirari , hysterical equanimity” [5] .
Notes
- ↑ Cicero , Tusculanae disputationes (3,30)
- ↑ Horace , Epistulae (1,6,1)
- ↑ Seneca , Epistulae Morales (8.5)
- ↑ Nietzsche. Morning dawn, or thoughts of moral prejudice. - Stanford University Press, 2011 .-- S. 157. - 438 p. - ISBN 0804780056 .
- ↑ Unofficial site about Choran (fr) .