Straton wrote that the most common error we commit is to think that ideas determine reality, when in fact the opposite is true. Ideas follow from material conditions; belief systems are formed to explain and justify the way we live. We did not have kings because we believed in the mandate of heaven; we believed in the mandate of heaven because we lived in monarchies.

If humankind had no more cause for war, if would make war for sport instead.

God appears, and God is light,
to those poor souls who well in night,
but does a human form display,
to those who dwell in realms of day.

1K: There will always be user error.
Melville: I think I could idiot proof this thing... but I do take your point. Pellegrino once almost killed himself with a bucket.

The honest philosopher is rewarded with poison; the hypocrite is rewarded with power.