A Voice From The Age Of Criticism

"We very often hear complaints of the shallowness of the present age, and of the decay of profound science. But I do not think that those which rest upon a secure foundation, such as mathematics, physical science, etc., in the least deserve this reproach, but that they rather maintain their ancient fame, and in the latter case, indeed, far surpass it. The same would be the case with the other kinds of cognition, if their principles were but firmly established. In the absence of this security, indifference, doubt, and finally, severe criticism are rather signs of a profound habit of thought. Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds of exemption from the examination of this tribunal. But, if they on they are exempted, they become the subjects of just suspicion, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination."

Immanuel Kant

Still True

Whoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. Knowledge is not intelligence. In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected. Change alone is unchanging. The same road goes both up and down. The beginning of a circle is also its end. 

Heraklietos Of Ephesos

Simple Definitions

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."

William Arthur Ward

Beware!

"The primitive tribe honors the storyteller, but if he doesn't tell a great story, they kill him and eat him for dinner."

William Froug

Behan's Lawyers

When Bob Dylan's third album The Times They Are A-Changin' was released in 1964, the Irish folk singer Dominic Behan was incensed to find that Dylan was credited as the composer of With God On Our Side, the tune of which Behan claimed to have written himself some time before as The Patriot Game. Actually the tune is a traditional, but that didn't stop Behan chiding Dylan publicly. During one of Dylan's early British tours, Behan called the American star in his hotel suite. Upon hearing Behan's uncompromising tirade, Dylan gave him the stereotypical American answer My lawyers can speak with your lawyers. That did not placate the angry Irishman. His alleged reply was: I've got two lawyers, and they're on the end of my wrists!

Be Plain!

"Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Only the hand that erases can write the true thing"

Meister Eckhart

Youth

"Youth is not entirely a time of life; it is a state of mind. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair."

Douglas MacArthur

A Swedish Tale

At a little distance from Baal Mountain, in the  parish of Filkestad, in Willand's Harad, lies a hill  where, formerly, lived a giant named Stompe Pilt. It happened one day, that a Goatherd came that  way, driving his goats before him, up the hill.

" Who comes there ?" demanded the Giant, rushing  out of the hill, with a large flint stone in his fist, when he discovered the Goatherd.

" It is I, if you will know," responded the Herder, continuing his way up the hill with his flock.

" If you come up here I will squeeze you into fragments as I do this stone," shrieked the Giant, and crushed the stone between his fingers into fine sand.

" Then I will squeeze water out of you as I do out of this stone," replied the Herder, taking a new-made

cheese from his bag and squeezing it so that the whey ran between his fingers to the ground.

" Are you not afraid ? " asked the Giant.

" Not of you," replied the Herder.

" Then let us fight," continued Stompe Pilt.

" All right," responded the Goatherd, " but let us first taunt each other so that we will become right angry, for taunting will beget anger and anger will give us cause to fight."

" Very well, and I will begin," said the Giant.

" Go ahead, and I will follow you," said the Herder.

" You shall become a crooked nose hobgoblin," cried the Giant.

" You shall become a flying devil," retorted the Herder, and from his bow shot a sharp arrow into the body of the Giant.

" What is that ? " inquired the Giant, endeavoring to pull the arrow from his flesh.

" That is a taunt," replied the Herder.

" Why has it feathers ? " asked the Giant.

" In order that it may fly straight and rapidly," answered the Herder.

" Why does it stick so fast ? " asked the Giant.

" Because it has taken root in your body," was the answer.

" Have you more of such ? " inquired the Giant.

" There, you have another," said the Herder, and shot another arrow into the Giant's body.

"Aj! aj!" shrieked Stompe Pilt; "are you not angry enough to fight ? "

" No, I have not yet taunted you enough," replied the Herder, setting an arrow to his bowstring.

" Drive your goats where you will. I can't endure your taunting, much less your blows," shrieked Stompe Pilt, and sprang into the hill again.

Thus the Herder was saved by means of his bravery and ingenuity.

How To Ruin A Friendship

"The surest way to turn a friend into an enemy is to give him an undeserved gift, send him money when he is in a desperate situation or save him from distress. His gratefulness will darken your relationship. Somehow he will feel inferior, and sooner or later take action to prove that you are the inferior one. In short, something meant as a blessing will upset the balance and ruin your friendship. Tragically you will never learn to let down a friend in need."

Joshua Fry Speed

Standing Alone

"The great creators—the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors—stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid."

Ayn Rand