Shorties

Every once in a while i like to publish things that most of us don't have the time to look for. The pieces are discordant but there is a thread of wise words if one takes the time to think about them.

Omar Khayyam

Don’t try every door
because of some bauble;
you just have to accept
the good and bad of your time;
a shake of the cup
and a toss of the dice–
whatever comes up,
you’ll just have to play it.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Whinfield 31 .

Bertrand Russell from the book “In Praise of Idleness”

Written in 1933

“Amid wars and rumors of wars, while “disarmament” proposals and non-aggression pacts threaten the human race with unprecedented disaster, another conflict, perhaps even more important, is receiving much less notice than it deserves—I mean the conflict between men and insects.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

“There is another thing about the Hobbits of old that must be mentioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of an herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf, a variety probably of Nicotiana.”

Kahlil Gibran

“Mankind have I loved. Ay, much have I

loved men,

And men in my opinion are three:

The one who curses life, the one who

blesses it, and the one who contem-

plates it.

The first I have loved for his misery, the

second for his beneficence, and the

third for his wisdom.”

Krishnamurti

“In thought first; and that is not easy, for there are in the world many untrue thoughts, many foolish superstitions, and no one who is enslaved by them can make progress. Therefore you must not hold a thought just because many other people hold it, nor because it has been believed for centuries, nor because it is written in some book which men think sacred; you must think of the matter for yourself, and judge for yourself whether it is reasonable. Remember that though a thousand men agree upon a subject, if they know nothing about that subject their opinion is of no value.”

Bhagavad Gita.

“Both you and I have passed

through many births.

You know them not;

I know them all.”

Carolos Castaneda “A Separate Reality”

“Let me tell you something,” don Juan said. “It was a waste of time for you. His lesson was for someone who can see. Pablito and Nestor got the gist of it, although they don't see very well. But you, you went there to look. I told Genaro that you are a very strange plugged-up-fool and that perhaps you'd get unplugged with his lesson, but you didn't. It doesn't matter though. Seeing is very difficult.”

Ernest Hemingway “The Old Man and the Sea”

“He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made his run. If I were him I would put in everything now and go until something broke. But, thank God, they are not as intelligent as we who kill them, although they are more noble and more able.”

Number 43 from the Tao Te Ching:

The softest thing in the universe
Overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.
That without substance can enter where there is no room.
Hence I know the value of non-action.
Teaching without words and work without doing
Are understood by very few.

See ya next week.