"Quidquid oritur, qualecumque est, causam habet a natura. Cum autem res nova et admirabilis fieri videtur, causam invetigato, si poteris, ratione confisus. Si nullam causam reperis, illud tamen certum habeto, nihil fieri potuisse sine causa naturali. Repelle igitur terrorem quem
res nova tibi attulit et semper verbis sapientium confidere aude:
sapiens enim facta, quae prodigiosa videntur , numquam fortuito
evenisse dicet, quod nihil fieri sine causa potest, nec quicquam fit
quod fieri non potest: nulla igitur portenta sunt. Nam si portentum
putare debemus id quod raro fit, sapientem esse portentum est: facilius
esse enim mulam parere arbitror quam sapientem esse."
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Quick and dirty translation:
"All what is born, whatever its nature, has its cause in Nature. In truth when a strange and admirable thing appears to happen, investigate its cause, if you can, having faith in reason. If you will not find any cause, nonetheless be sure that nothing could happen without a natural cause. So repel the fear that the new thing brought and always dare trust the words of the sage: the sage in fact will never say that the facts which appear prodigious have happened by chance, that nothing can happen without a cause, or anything happens which cannot happen: therefore no miracles happen. In fact, if we have to consider a miracle what rarely happens, being sage is a miracle: it is easier that a mule obeys, than being sage."
And this, dear fellows, was written over 2000 years ago. For the benefit of the millions who read horoscopes and believe in ghosts.
