A Kind Of Reflexions

Cristache Gheorghiu

A K ind of Reflect ion s

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Preliminary Edition

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ISBN: 978-973-99553-8-6 973-99553-8-x

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They say that only great men could have great defects. It is not my case, so that not longer censure me so much.

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Verba volant, scripta manet Writing finds its justification in the ephemerality of speaking. Today, things are different. Speaking can be recorded in many ways. And not only the words. Paper is only a support among many others. Besides, it is expensive.

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Copy rights Some people wrote on paper and multiplied the papers. Others wrote inside me. Unfortunately, they have problems with the multiplication. Or, maybe, fortunately.

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Progress While beginner as skier I used to be very glad for every progress. With every year I became more and more good at it. But, as much I were advancing as smaller room for progress was remaining for me. I was discontent, of course, and if I ever fall down, it was a tragedy for a week. The moral: the progress may prejudice our happiness. 7

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Modern Poetry For some time past, the poetry became prose, although the reverse would have been much better. Or, maybe, I looked rather much in the mirror of water, where everything is seen inversely. Sometimes, it trembles. The water, of course. And the mirror, too. Maybe just this is its beauty. Of the poetry! The prose from it is what trembles. 9

What gorgeous would be inversely!!!

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Greenland and global heating One wishes Greenpeace to be an ideal and everyone to struggle for it. I wonder! They found it long time ego and even gave a name to it. Greenland they called it, although it was almost white. To follow its green destine 11

does not seem to be an ideal.

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The Virgin Sofia „Philosophy keeps its virginity in spite of numerous violations.” It was not me writing it, but y Gasset. So, I declare as platonic my love to Sofia. Not for other reason, but I do not like fruitless gestures.

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From sublime to ridicule Since Socrates till today, philosophy traversed the full way from sublime to ridicule. Probably, at the beginning, it was not just sublime, but it proposed to be. Sublimation means a transformation from solid state direct into a gaseous one. This is what explains its disparity, without we could observe it.

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What a pity! And we loved it so much. . . Especially in the fluid state.

New York New York is fascinating at the first visit. At the second one, an exit gate you will be searching for. And if it is to not find it, a new-Yorker you will become. 16

With small 'n' and “VIP” cap.

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The Past Bootless is to close your eyes, for the past to move away. Even what you don’t want seeing clearer appear in your mind. Better is to assume your deeds, Learn from the past what can and, make at least a happy future.

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The talent The talent of many artists consumed itself during the admitting exam.

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The rules of play The rules of play are kept in plays. The politicians do not know how to play, unfortunately.

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Don’t translate every word As everywhere, a ticket toward Santa Fe is more expensive single as return. There are also some cheaper tickets for children and the elder persons. All these are true, as long you don’t translate all words and leave them as they are. 21

Santa Fe, for example!

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The Way of Vacancy “Route 66” - the way of dream, vacancy's dream. Chicago is behind. Santa Monica is forward, in mind and in spirit. The opposite is backward to house and work. Old memories kept in the song as well.

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Disjunction If Marx had been a scientist, he would have experimented his system on animals, first. George Orwell did it in literature, but without effect in politics. The moral: politics and literature are disjunctive.

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Shades and lights A beam of light is necessary for make an object to shine. Nothing glitters, instead, in the dazzling light of day. A little shade would be useful, then.

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Yes and no People express their agreement in different ways, accordingly with their language: yes, da, oui and many others. The disagreement, instead contain at least an 'n'. Is it accidentally?

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An accident A car, named Romania, left the road and plunged in abyss. It was August 23, 1944. What nice it seems to be! Mountains and valleys were going by us . . . And what pleasant it was . . . But suddenly, our smooth fly broke itself. A terrible jolt followed and finally, even the car disintegrated. 27

The precipice used to have a bottom. What a tragedy! Who could be think?

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A riddle The percent of wrongdoers is equal on the earth. There are bank-breakers only where there are banks. No banks, no bank-breakers. What a clever boy I am! In communism there were not thieves, as there was nothing to be stolen. And then, the wrongdoing what they deal with? Guess my riddle! 29

Do not say that all of them became politicians. There were not so much rooms.

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Choices It is good when some alternative solutions are possible. Even water is a good alternative of wine, but not every day.

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Haiku to George, my friend Inspiring dreams, capricious times, grape.

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Humpty-Dumpty You win when lose, if know how to arise.

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The Real Man Between extreme egoism and extreme altruism, the real man finds his own way. The egoism is natural; the altruism is acquired; the way, of course, wretched.

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Destiny? From an utopia to another, we are drifting endlessly.

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Feminine ambitions Women wishing to be equal with men have not ambition.

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Squander With all the penury of intelligence, people do not stop to waste the little one that they have, trying to learn what is their sense on the earth, when it is evident for anyone that they do not have any.

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Intelligence At ants, bees and others like them, collective intelligence is more efficient than the individual one. One by one, they do not have mind almost at all. Their societies, instead, are complex organized and work perfectly. At mankind is the contrary: the individuals are intelligent, but in collectivity they are selfdestructive. It seems that too intelligence could harm.

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Or, maybe, the word intelligence is not well defined. 38

T-shirt T-shirts were invented by Venus de Milo.

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Science of Politics If a science of politics had existed, the politicians would not have existed.

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Great Heat On the telegraph wires the birds put on notes the heat of the day. What a great things the technology is! Without wires, there were not notes, and without notes, we could not understand birth's song. Can it be true? What a heat. . . 41

They want us to be uniform Because we are different, they dress us in uniforms, in conveniences, in rules. But we are not uniform. This is why we wear the uniforms in different ways.

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The way The shorter route between two peaks of mountains is not rectilinear. You need to descent from the first one, in order to ascend on the other. After a victory, you cannot jump directly in another victory. The one who thinks to do it 43

did not really know neither of them.

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Ideas Bad ideas are good . . . as fertilizer for philosophy.

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Civilization What could we say about the society in which the civilized man is weak in face of a rude one?

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Without wings The wings of any society are its intellectuals. „Otez les ailes à un papillon; c’est une chenille” (Chamfort). This is what Romania became after the Russians decimated its intellectuals.

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From the childhood Any person forms his mentality during his childhood, especially as adolescent. The rest is varnish. Let me know what you have learnt then and I say who you are. Let me know what you read then and I say what you are. 48

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The “happy” universe of childhood Ah, how sharp my knees were aching, when I used to fall and how much I wanted to grow elder. The grown-ups do not knock at their knees, I observed. Instead, they are ingrates. They assert to be the only ones having problems, that only their problems are count, that only they are stressed, even – as a matter of fact – they are those stressing us. 50

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Passions Passion is immanent to every person. The hazard make from him an artist or killer, scientist or politician, poet or thieve. But, ”Le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés”. (Pasteur) - And who deals with spirit? - The hazard as well. This is so, because man is first spirit and ultimately matter. - And if it would be inverse? - Inverse we all are . . . what we are. 52

Mafia Mafia? A naivety! We nationalized it.

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Kant and us Königsberg is the town where Kant lived. Kaliningrad is the name that Stalin gave it for glorifying Kalinin. Who said that want to get rid of communism? Maybe of Kant! It seems that some things must be de-kant-ed. Or, maybe de-kalinin-ed.

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Crucial Moments There are moments when people think that, in just that moment, the intelligence came down on their heads. It is true, not all of them, but always much too many. How could we call such moments? But such people?

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Inhabitants In some towns, I liked the museums, in other ones, people. In some towns, only people liked me. In every town I liked something. In some towns, I didn't like the museums, in other ones, I didn't like people. There is not town in which everything liked me. To like me, it would be build accordingly with my test, although I did not define it, yet. There are towns. There are villages. 56

They are dwelt. People call them localities. If the localities are not dwelt, they are said “archaeological sites”.

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I would not like to live in an archaeological site, not even as exhibit. As unique inhabitant, I should feel guilty for all errors, which surely exist. We are the amount of our errors. It is good that, at least, we are something, if we cannot be somebody. 58

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I am somebody I sacrificed what I owned, for acquire what I wanted. I acquired what I wanted, and I became somebody else. I am poorer for what I lost, but do not regret what I became. If both of then I had had, I would have been a different one, if this would be possible. Someone else, instead of me, maybe would do. But that one could not be me. 60

And, if was not to be someone else, I am glad to be, at least, someone.

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Between altruism and egotism The struggle for existence is the essence of any being. From the smallest cell to the most complex organism, life is an endless endeavour for an individual's betterment based on his environment. It stops only when he exhausts his resources, or meets with a similar individual with whom he has to share the same resources. An individual's ideal is a selfish one. Accepting the other is subsequently. It comes from the contact with the environment and man learns it during his life. 62

Egoism is genetic. Altruism is acquired.

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Between extremes If someone had taught us what the right way is, we should not have searched the true between two extreme equal impossible.

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Paradise? How is that? We have a very fecund imagination concerning the horror of Hell. Instead, we are awkward imagining Paradise. A question of specialization.

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Society Man lives in group and dies alone. The death the religion deal with. So, the individual's problem is solved. The life? Nobody deals with it. This is why we have so many social problems.

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From Chaos The Chaos was, for the beginning, namely something without shape and limits. Something in which, albeit anything is possible, nothing occurs. But it was God who came. He first made skies and earth, so he draw a separating line between them. So far, he didn't created, but delimited.

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Nowhere is said, neither in Bible or somewhere else that someone would created Chaos. In all religions, Chaos existed before. The Pan-creator, improperly named so, did not created, but separated. Drawing a border between sky and earth, he created two restrictions: - earth no longer be sky; 68

- sky no longer be earth.

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And things did not stop here. Carrying on, he separated light from dark, earth from waters etc. He enforced limits after limits, restrictions after restrictions. And did not stop neither here. On smaller and smaller spaces, he organised the mater in more and more odd entities, even small monsters 70

Among them, we are, as well.

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He obliged us to fight against everything around us, even each others. The limits imposed by the Creator have became more and more suffocating. And all these are to be agreeable to us.

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Entropy - The engine of life is inequality. - I know, a question of entropy. - This is for not any people to catch the idea. - What democracy would be then?

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I and he Any “I” wants to extend his border over his neighbour's one. To integrate it, if possible. “We” is an abstract notion existing only in grammars. “You” do not exist. There are only “I” and “He”. “He” is the one who must be assimilate. “I” is the only entity with sense.

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The art of negotiation God, make to rain, and I will do an oblation

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Burglar's belief Help me, God, maybe they will not catch me!

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Religion / Church With all church’s opposition, people want their religion back. And they will get it.

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Religion? Something that gives sense to life, in which one can believe.

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Schism If Jesus had realized that he will provoke a schism, he would have studied the Science of Politics. Or, maybe, botanic, as at herbage is the same.

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Alternatives Stupid, but happy? / Clever and unhappy? There is not a middle way? - Not as long you didn't find it. - Are you being a clever? - Some people think they already find it. - These ones are only ignorant. - Don't you have a more reasonable way? - To search for is your destiny. - Mankind will find a reasonable way only after they will exhaust all others possibilities, and these ones are infinite. - I know it. Someone else said it, it's true, in a different context. 80

- I have an idea: to recognize that we are stupid. - Your optimism is exaggerated.

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Tax for profit The one who works pays. The one who plays truant receives. Be blessed the name of state!

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Law Infringements could not exist without laws. Here is something deserving to think about.

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Pedagogic Pedagogy is a gift. Some ones own it, others don’t. The universities making teachers should verify the applicant's talent, as those of music do.

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Becoming “Man begun as a worm”, Geoffroy said it, in an optimist-evolutionist vision. The reciprocally would be to arrive there, having in view that we started from Creator’s hands as superior beings. Personally, I prefer a more static variant: to remain men, if possible! 85

Pseudo-haiku at seaside Long neck, the head away, giraffe.

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A Ludic One We think differently But laugh similarly When laughing.

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In Theatre Camels don't play theatre, albeit their faces are very expressive.

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Nona (the ninth part) During the Middle Eve, it was the part of the harvest due to the feudal. What a time . . .

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The Right Way - The church show us the right way. - Even in the market orientated economy? - Especially there. - How is that? - By priests' example. Their avarice is remarkable.

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Dilettantes The writers of a single book remain dilettantes? Still, some of them are famous.

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Fiction Fairy tales teach children ideas difficult to explain and understand in other ways. Literary fiction does the same for some grown-ups.

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How we read? Following the advice of Spain's ambassador, George Sand lead Chopin in Majorca, even its climate was improper for his healthiness, in that season. Chopin, immigrant from Poland, was not informed. Spain's ambassador was doing touristic publicity, probably. He didn't care for a poor Polish about whom he didn't feel that will become a celebrity.

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Instead, George Sand ought to know the climate in Baleare Islands. If yes, her gesture was criminal. If not, it means that she was ignorant.

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Everything I read now, is subordinated to the question “how clever / informed used to be the author?”

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Dilemma Some persons anger on me, although I do not say nothing new. On the contrary, I say what they knew before, even better than me. It seems that just this is what annoy they, but I still do not know why they angry on me.

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The writer Montesquieu If a graduated from a secondary school were asked what he knows about Montesquieu, he probably will answer something like: French writer, 18 century, “Persian Letters”. If he has a good memory, maybe he will mention “The Spirit of Laws”, about which he will not be able to say much, because he did not read it. It is a book for specialists. Montesquieu was a magistrate. As a recognised classic of universal literature, nobody impugns his qualities and is contented with what people say about. Still, at a more attentive analyze, a paradox appears. From the literary point of view, “Persian Letters” is far from a masterpiece. 97

It is not a monument of the literature able to justify the presence of the author on the list of great celebrities. Montesquieu himself would have been very malcontent if all his activity had been limited at this book of about 200 pages.

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He was passionately fond of philosophy, disciple of Hobbs and Lock, and proposed himself to apply their ideas in the society of his time, which he did in “The Spirit of Laws”. His implication in literature comes from his efforts for convey these ideas toward groups of people as large as possible. “Letters” are small essays and only the titles give the impression of a correspondence. Without them, Montesquieu would remain a magistrate-philosopher unknown by literary world. Instead, only with “Persian Letters” he would entered not even in literature. His complex personality make from him a celebrity, because – in 99

the last analysis – a writer is someone having something to say, namely someone who want to communicate with people, let he be an magistrate.

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Philo-Sophia It is beyond doubt that philosophy is fruitless. The problem is that we cannot live without it. This doesn't mean that we all are sage. Not, not, with the sapience we extricate. Love for sapience is what trouble us. This is so because we always want what we do not own. 101

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Scholar philosophy Scholar philosophy is something as a ray of light reflected by some heads without inner light.

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Dali - I heard that Dali's art would be a form of resistance against the madness. - I thought that it is madness itself.

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Paradigm Every civilisation has its paradigm, subsist al long as its paradigm is credible and disappears when it burns up its paradigm.

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Felix To be happy (felix) meant in Latin language to be fruitful and full of success. A possible achievable goal! Today, to be happy means to be flooded with what you suppose to enjoy you without any effort. As wishes always exceed the possibilities, happiness becomes an objective unfeasible. 106

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Precision A clock shows exactly the time twice a day, if it does not work. A working clock shows the time approximately. Which one do you prefer?

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Genial Ideas Some genial ideas could come us by drinking; never after.

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Stupidity Stupidity is not sagacity with the sign minus, but the lack of them, as the darkness is not a different sort of light, but its lack. This is why the great mistakes belong to the great smart people and not to the great idiots.

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The Saint Sophia It seems that sagacity was holy, formerly.

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Traces The Romanian territory, was crossed by many waves of barbarians and nonbarbarians. All of them leaved traces. Our opinions about them are different. We are proud with some but are shame with others. We have fellow feeling for some and scorn for others. We even hate some. Everything accordingly to their traces. 112

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Mediocrity It is much gravely to have mediocre illusions than to live mediocre. For a mediocre life there are excuses and justifications. Not for the mediocrity of the illusions.

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Teachers Extremely, there are two kinds of teachers: - Those that teach the children things that they did not know in reality, like those for history and geography; - Those that experienced first what they have to teach, like those for physics. The first ones can be congenial; the others usually are boring. But the most attractive are those that do not know what are they talking about. 115

Schools of Philosophy The schools of philosophy consumes intellectual energy of the students, coaching them in handling a specific language, making him, in this way, inapt for free thinking. The future philosopher excludes himself from the society and society, in his turn, doesn't really need of such “specialist”.

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Opinions When you are not sure on your ideas, do not over-solicit your friends; prove them with those that are not tolerant with you

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Verification If you want to verify your ideas, try to expound them to someone; you will correct them even before exposing.

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How the ideas come us For some things we have to struggle: for money; for women / men; for social positions and what not. Only the ideas come alone, unbidden. Under one condition: to had struggled for something. Corollary: you have those ideas that things you have struggled for gave to you. 119

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Differences What makes us to be different are not the truths which we succeeded to learn and are known by many others, but the ways through which we arrived to them.

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Trust in ourselves We often know what other people want for us. Rarely we know what ourselves want. And when we think that we know we are deceived.

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Old or Eternal? Some things are old, other eternal: concepts, ideas. The eternal ones do not become obsolete. How we discern them? This is one of the art of life. For some people it is a gift. Others learn to do it during their life. Some sooner, some slower, some never. For the last ones, everything seems to be obsolete, 123

even the future.

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Freedom The condition of freedom is the absence of any dependence. The dependence is born when you pay the offer with your soul, as you couldn't control your temptations.

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„Non-understandable” artists Art is a way of communication with specific means. Everybody agree with this general assertion. The communication exists, when the idea issued by emitter arrive safe and sound till the receiver. The means are different and, due to them, he is a great or small artist. But, if he doesn't succeed to communicate, It means that he doesn't exist as an intelligent being. 126

This is why the pretension to be non-understood is a lie.

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The Social Man As we live in society, our thoughts must take a transmissible shape.

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Sagacity Claims Detachment We achieve the abilities in contact with things. We manage ourselves in the problems of life. Still, we achieve the sagacity only after we detach ourselves from all these. But we can detach from them only after we become expert in resolving them, which supposes that we thoroughly studied the field in all its details. 129

Forms of express Artists look for new forms of express. The young ones do it even before to have something to express.

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Originality at any price The most unfitted means to become original is to want this.

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Love and timidity Timidity denotes a kind of spiritual noblesse. Rarely, maybe never, the real lover can express their love. Love is noblesse itself. Maybe this is why it is so difficult to express.

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Poet's Love The poet speaks easily about love because he didn't really know it.

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Excess of sexuality The excess of sexuality in the nowadays art and literature reflects a tendency of coming back to nature.

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Coming back to Nature For mankind, coming back to nature means coming back to animalism. We are fully aware of this? If yes, it means to recognise that we make a mistake. When?

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Dreams The dreams are ours. The reality is of everyone. Respect others' dreams.

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Conscience of Conscience We are unconscious if we imagine that we have the conscience of our conscience. If we had been conscious, we would have built our future in a different way.

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Technological development We accuse the technological development for man's moving off from philosophy and religion. But technological development always existed. The wheel invention and using the fire were even more revolutionary then electronics or cosmos conquest. Does it means that primitive man 138

was more philosopher then us? “Philo” maybe! “Sofos”? I doubt.

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It seems that, in our evolution, a point of optimum existed. If yes, that was the moment in which we was wrong. Here is a paradox: to make the greatest mistake in the best moment of thought.

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Portrait in the Mirror I am looking in a mirror and see the portrait of a man that sing. I do not recognise myself. Besides, I do not sing. It is in Picasso's style. I do not recognize the melody either. I have a hope: maybe the mirror is broken. It's a blessing that it is not a Rubens.

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The gift and the girl I knew a very revolted girl because people used to admire a famous singer. She could not be so gifted, in her opinion, as both of them had been class mates in primary school. Consequently, they have equal rights.

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Decisions Decision are as easy to take as little you understand the complexity of the problem.

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The Rest A worker may repose himself by reading a book. An intellectual may repose himself by making a manual activity. Let me know how you repose and I will say you who are. This is not true in case you repose at work.

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Sword It is easier to pull out the sword from its scabbard, than replace it. Maybe I read it sometime, in my childhood, but what you find by yourself seems to be wiser.

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Concentration Do not let the up-and-downs of life to take hold on your thought. Keep your thinking clean and free. Only so you can lead it toward what it is worthy.

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Style Style is not a supplement, a hat, but the essence.

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Thinking Our thinking is like the earth in which the ideas germinate. The ideas comes to us from contacts with our fellows or from books. Many seeds perishes as they do not find the adequate earth. Reciprocal statement is not true.

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Receptivity We pick up only those ideas that graft itself on the knowledge existing there, like a Lego. Some older ideas are stimulated in this way. Paradoxically, we call the new ideas as being suggestions, while the old ones as original.

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Life The end of life is part of life.

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Artistic Currents In any epoch, there is a dominant artistic current. We can identify it by its form of express. The fond is eternal. This is why, artist's enlist, without discernment, into a fashionable current does not achieve value.. 152

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Love If we knew why we love, we would not love any longer. Maybe!

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Love is blind One says that love is blind. I think that we are blind. Love comes where our wit cannot reach.

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Bluntness As great is a bluntness, as difficult is to refute it.

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The Poetics of bluntness There is shoddy poesy. I did not hear about a poetic stupidity, although some people try.

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Nobility Many people throw off the nobility in risible without realise that themselves become ignoble.

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Artistic currents Some artistic currents are like the fashion: they obsolete themselves and disappear without trace. Other ones invent new possibilities of expressing. Modernism, post-modernism etc, are not currents, but only periods of questing, unfortunately sterile. 159

Culture The culture (of a person or people) is visible in the capacity of expressing complex notions.

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Infinite Between small infinite and the great one our world exists, as an infinitesimal quantity.

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The Error On our way toward anywhere, the errors are inevitable. The success depend on how soon we recognise and correct them.

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Russians outside Why there are so many Russian people throughout the world? It's because, learning English language by ear, they confuse Moscow with “must go”, and leave. And how they succeed outside? One of their founders had a predestined name: Dolgoruki. It means “long hand”, an expression for thieves.

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The good example Sometimes, we correct ourselves thanks to bad example; almost never, thanks to the good one.

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Evolution You cannot develop yourself without changing yourself. Start with undershirt clothes.

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Opposed Among those five fingers of a hand, only one is opposed. Without it, the hand would not be hand, but foot. What we would become with more opposing fingers? With the all ones would not be possible, as it would be a foot, but for walking backward.

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Modesty? Modesty? Let's be seriously; where did you see it? Self-pride? Without it we would not exist.

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Present We are between “it was” and “it will be”. What it is between them makes the difference between “it may become” and “it could have became” (if it had …ed).

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The Europeans The Europeans began to be heretics and finished as erotic.

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Inopportune laud One day, I lauded somebody for something really meritorious, in my opinion. But the man was accustomed to be fawn upon and considered my prise an offence face to his grandeur. I understood then the fact for which I lauded him was an accident in his life. Or, maybe, his life was an accident. It depends from which angle you are looking. No matter of the angle, my gesture was a mistake, for which I cannot excuse myself, as it means to commit a new error. 170

Gold? Heraclitus said: “Between gold and straws, the donkey prefers draws”. Nothing new under the sun.

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The arriviste An arriviste tried to climb on the top of the pyramid, removing those from his way, not keeping account that they had built the pyramid. He succeeded, but – making leave those more valuable than him – the pyramid became so tiny, that it disappeared.

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Philosophizing Every people philosophize; the instruments are different.

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Difference There is a difference between genius and stupidity: genial people are limits.

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Eternal returning The old Greeks intuited the infinite only concerning the time, but not for the space. The space used to be finite for them. Hence, the idea that, in the infinity of time, all possible combinations of the atoms – existing in a finite number – will repeat itself in an infinite number of times. After more than two thousand of years, Nietzsche caught the idea too. Still, he lost sight of the fact that, in the meantime, science had progressed. 175

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Contagion Only diseases are transmissible, not the healthiness. Good deeds are not contagious too. If something have caught on you, and it is not lipstick, you must think. Probably it is dangerous.

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The amour It is easy to fall in love. More difficult is to confess it.

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Friends Friends are like us; after all, we selected them. When you blame them, be careful. Look at the dog barking at herself in the front of a mirror.

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The Defects of Virtues “Everyone has the defects of his virtues.” (George Sand) Beware of great virtuous ones!

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Music and Speaking Music is the language of sentiments. Speaking is the language of ration. Programmatic music and poetic speaking bring nearer the sentiments to ration, but move away the both from the essences.

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Wish Be careful what you wish for. It's possible to come true.

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Robotics From Sumerian mythology, we learn that the gods, bored with working for satisfying daily needs, thought to find a way to solve the problem. Then, Enki had a genial idea: from clay and water, he made a being destined to work instead of them. Here is how robotics appeared. Today, the robots think themselves they are gods. There is a risk in everything.

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Multi-theism Having more gods and legends, some of them contradictory, antic people were ready to accept the existence of more possibilities. This is why they were more receptive, more enlighten and open minded.

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Cults The moderns replaced the antic cult of phallus with that of the cannon. Their ideograms are alike. Both of them represent the power. The difference is more a ethical one: the first is creative while the second is destructive.

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Freedom Every person is free to think anything he wants, but he is not allowed to do all what he thinks, if his deeds could injure his fellows. Well, what is freedom, then?

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Dragons In fairy tales, the dragons have more heads. In real life, they have more tails.

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Conscience I want to meet that pacifist American, who abandon his job and renounce of the wage, because he realised that some products of the plant in which he work are used in an unjust war.

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Art Art must be understood conveying something.

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What would be a novel written in an inexistent language, or a theatre in which the actors stay unmoved on the stage and utter non-intelligible sounds?

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Dissertation In some of most savant texts, the author finishes his dissertations with a proverb, in order to confirm the accuracy of his logical demonstration. He loses sight of the fact that, in this way, he proves that people's wisdom used to know for ages what he has just found out.

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Hope Communism deprived the riches of the wealth, but could took their spirit. From the poor it took the all: the hope

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Ache The ache is only a warning signal. It says us that something is not all right and we ought to take urgent measures. Without it, we would be less informed. Suffering means a longer ache. If it is one of the soul, it means that we should have treated it long time ago. But never is too late. 192

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Uter sensu In stricto sensu, you see too narrow. In lato sensu, you don’t see too wide, but more confuse.

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Studies There are persons without studies, with some studies and with higher studies. There are not persons with lower studies. Not by a long chalk! I played you a trick. There are! More that it: there are lower persons with higher studies.

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Writing and reading When writing, you are thinking to the one who will read. When reading, you are not thinking to the one who has wrote, but why he wrote.

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Assessment Only the persons upper than us may assess us. Not only because they own the necessary quality, but because they are the only ones disposed to do it. Of course, sometime, Not always.

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Force Did you notice that powerful persons have delicate gestures? The reciprocal statement is true as well.

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Reducing Cure Did you hear that one can grow slim by praying between two abundant meals.

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Philosophic writings The philosophers relate, in an arid way, what everybody used to know long before.

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The Past, as a Shadow The past begins today. The one beginning tomorrow may be different, as, inside it, today enter as well. Be careful what you do today! The past will follow you in future as a shadow

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Esteem Between persons esteeming each other, a delicate gesture is repaid by the others with another delicate gesture. In the lack of esteem, such a gesture is taken by the other as an opportunity to take advantage from.

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Occidental offer They changed the offer. If in the past they used to export religion, now, they offer “man’s rights”. Wars are what priests generated. We do not know so far what homosexuals will generate.

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Acquired Intelligence Rich person’s stupidity is more evident. Poor person has to struggle for life. In this way, he acquires some abilities. Unfortunately, he loses them if enrich.

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The Limits of the Reason Mathematics, most rational among sciences, invented irrational numbers. It did not want, but succeeded in demonstrating that ration has limits.

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Partnership Sometimes, Usually after a long suffering, Good men join together In face of a major Danger. The bad ones do it any time an opportunity appears. (In the lack of it, they will invent one.) And the communication between them is different. The first ones need lasting talks. The second ones come to an agreement at a glance. 206

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Flat Land / Mountain People from flat lands, as they do not have something to prop up their view, deal with what the proximity offer to them. Far away is, for most of them, too away. The mountain, for those living at its foot, is either an insurmountable. Obstacle, or a temptation, for the most courageous of them. The path climbs or descends, according with the direction of walking. With the people is the same.

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Orient / Occident Europe needs martyrs Socrates and Jesus was the first ones. Buddha and Confucius died at old ages.

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Simple things Nobody troubles his head with simple things. That’s why they remain unapprehended

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Golden Mean The golden mean doesn’t mean a half of a measure

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Serpent Symbol of cunning, the serpent got this renown not because he creeps but because he sinuates.

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Suspicion Rarely. A man becomes suspicious after someone deceived him, and – if he does it – it occurs only face to the deceiver. Generally, naïve people remain naïve. The really suspicious is the one used to deceive other people. Thinking that the others are like him, he wonder if he is not deceived at his turn.

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Friend Friend is the one who, if you injure him with something, he wonder what he was wrong with you and is read to beg your pardon.

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Writing For the beginning, man used to think only for himself. When he want to communicate with the others, he invented speaking. In time, speaking influenced his thinking. Writing amplified his way of thinking: sequential, rigorous. It is not easy to run over letter, words and phrases to learn what the author wanted to say. Only those well trained can do it. Now, we are victims of this method. 215

What about those writing in a different way?

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Religion and Civilisation Religion asks us to be warmhearted each other. Civilisation asks us to esteem each other.

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Eve The eve of every holiday is more important than the holiday itself. During the previous days, people get close to the sacrum, think of it. As soon as man starts celebrating, he forget what he celebrate for.

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Accidents Statistics show that, in Europe, more accidents occurs in Portugal and much less in Swede. It is clear! Snow is good for traffic.

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Children’s mistakes Children do not repeat the parents’ mistakes. They do some different ones, according with their education received from the parents.

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Indiscretion If God has put a curtain between he and us, in order to avoid our indiscrete views. we should respect his wish.

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Atheism The first Christians were considered to be atheists, because they did not keep the rituals of that time.

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The exception “The exception confirms the rule”, because specifies its field of validity.

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Traces Do not look in sky for the trace of flying bird.

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If you are not a statue, yet If, from the sky, something that only statues support, fell down on you, be quiet. Only in state of rest a bird chooses the place. On flying, was only a chance you was in it way.

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We Only when I say “We” I feel myself really prideful.

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