"Begin thus from the first act, and proceed; and, in conclusion, at the ill which thou hast done, be troubled, and rejoice for the good"
About this Quote
Moral bookkeeping, but with the cool discipline of a proof. Pythagoras isn’t offering a vague invitation to “be good”; he’s prescribing a method: start at the beginning, move step by step, then audit the results with unsentimental honesty. “Begin thus from the first act, and proceed” reads like geometry turned inward. Virtue is not a mood or a burst of inspiration. It’s procedure.
The subtext is accountability without theatrical self-hatred. “At the ill which thou hast done, be troubled” demands a kind of productive discomfort: not guilt as performance, but remorse as data. In a culture where reputation and ritual could stand in for character, this line insists that the self is answerable to itself. The kicker is the second half: “and rejoice for the good.” That’s not self-congratulation; it’s reinforcement. If regret corrects the course, joy makes the course sustainable. You’re meant to feel both, in proportion, like a well-tuned instrument.
Context matters: this is Pythagoras the moral teacher as much as Pythagoras the mathematician. The Pythagorean tradition tied harmony in numbers to harmony in life, treating the soul like something that can be trained through daily practices, not merely believed into salvation. The quote works because it smuggles an ethic into a timeline: act, review, adjust. It’s self-improvement stripped of modern fluff, almost algorithmic, and that austerity is the point.
The subtext is accountability without theatrical self-hatred. “At the ill which thou hast done, be troubled” demands a kind of productive discomfort: not guilt as performance, but remorse as data. In a culture where reputation and ritual could stand in for character, this line insists that the self is answerable to itself. The kicker is the second half: “and rejoice for the good.” That’s not self-congratulation; it’s reinforcement. If regret corrects the course, joy makes the course sustainable. You’re meant to feel both, in proportion, like a well-tuned instrument.
Context matters: this is Pythagoras the moral teacher as much as Pythagoras the mathematician. The Pythagorean tradition tied harmony in numbers to harmony in life, treating the soul like something that can be trained through daily practices, not merely believed into salvation. The quote works because it smuggles an ethic into a timeline: act, review, adjust. It’s self-improvement stripped of modern fluff, almost algorithmic, and that austerity is the point.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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