DiotimosReading Desk

Learning from another’s example or one’s own loss

damno proprio; alieno exemplo; suomet; Damnum proprium; exemplum alienum

The text provocatively says the wise learn from another person’s example, not their own loss, and treats repeated self-caused failure as animal folly.

From the book

Nine Books on the Nature of Things

Attributed to Paracelsus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Meaning

The text provocatively says the wise learn from another person’s example, not their own loss, and treats repeated self-caused failure as animal folly. The contrast belongs to a moralizing argument about resisting astral servitude. It is not a universal psychological law. Preserving the possessive distinctions keeps the claim precise rather than reducing it to a general praise of experience.

Places to read

  1. Book 9 · Signature · Passage 20Latin“ab alieno exemplo sapit, non suomet”