Book 2, Chapter 2 | The Consolation of Philosophy

Chapter Summary

Philosophy takes on the voice of Fortune to challenge the validity of Boethius’s complaint against her: If possessions of riches and offices are the right of any human, she will admit that he is complaining justly. She gave him a spoiled youth and made him rich; can she not take back what is hers? It is her right to give and to take, to lift up and throw down, and he knows she has done this throughout the centuries. He should not think himself exempted from this.

About The Consolation of Philosophy

Written in the 6th-century from a prison cell as the author awaits execution for a crime he did not commit, The Consolation of Philosophy is a dialogue between Boethius and a mysterious woman—Lady Philosophy—who helps him rediscover wisdom and virtue.

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