The purpose of education

The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.

(Sydney J. Harris)

Passive imitation

He who only imitates and had nothing to say


On what he imitates is like


A poor chimpanzee, who imitates his trainer’s smoking


And does not smoke while doing so. For never


Will a thoughtless imitation


Be a real imitation.

(Bertolt Brecht)

Ambition

Ambition makes men willing to do the most degrading things: they climb up by crawling.

(梁治華, Liang Shih-chiu)

El Poeta mete la mano en el agua

A la mar fui por naranjas

cosa que la mar no tiene.

Metí la mano en el agua:

la esperanza me mantiene.

(Pedro García Cabrera)

In Auschwitz...

«In Auschwitz, however, the intellectual person was isolated, thrown back entirely upon himself. (...) In Auschwitz the intellect was nothing more than itself and there was no chance to apply it to a social structure (...) the intellectual was alone with his intellect, which was nothing other than pure content of consciousness, and there was no social reality that could support and confirm it».

(Jean Améry)

Keep Calm Movement

Formule consacrate

«Il gran male di cui l’umanità va liberata è la tendenza a compiacersi delle formule consacrate, che equivale, poi, alla mancanza di fiducia nella propria coscienza. Una volta emancipata dalla credenza cieca e passiva nelle formule, la sapienza dell’uomo potrà manifestarsi liberamente. Ma allora essa lotterà ancora per innalzarsi dalla scienza imparaticcia alla saggezza animata dalle pulsazioni della vita».

(Erich Mühsam)