Once upon a time

No man can frequent the company of the great philosophers without changing his mind and widening his views on a thousand vital points.

(Will Durant)

A "simple" question

One of the anecdotes I like the most about celestial mechanics is the one describing when Christiaan Huygens on his third visit to England, in 1689, meet Isaac Newton and, during the tea break in Newton’s house, asked if the great genius believed planetary orbits to be circular or elliptical and Newton just replied that “they are elliptical, of course!” When Huygens further inquired on how would he be so sure, Newton simply added; “Oh, I calculated that a while ago, and my calculations should be here somewhere…” but he could not find those pages in the confusion of his room so he promised to redo the calculations and, after little time, Huygens received a full treatise on planetary orbits including what we call Newton’s theorem of revolving orbits... a consequence of Gravitation and one of the basics in classical mechanics... Probably, if Huygens would not have asked, Newton might even have forgotten about one of his (many) great achievements...    

(Dr. Divago)

Paradigm of stupidity

Paradigma des Blödsinns – Das Geld verwandelt die Treue in Untreue, die Liebe in Haß, den Haß in Liebe, die Tugend in Laster, das Laster in Tugend, den Knecht in den Herrn, den Herrn in den Knecht, den Blödsinn in Verstand, den Verstand in Blödsinn

(Karl Marx)

Paradigm of stupidity – Money transforms fidelity into infidelity, love into hate, hate into love, virtue into vice, vice into virtue, servant into master, master into servant, idiocy into intelligence, and intelligence into idiocy.

Paradigma della stupidità – Il denaro tramuta la fedeltà in infedeltà, l’amore in odio, l’odio in amore, la virtù in vizio, il vizio in virtù, il servo in padrone, il padrone in servo, la stupidità in intelligenza, l’intelligenza in stupidità.

In ascolto nel silenzio della storia

«Un mistico lo si sente solo nel silenzio della notte come certi richiami d’uccello; perciò un mistico non ha per lo più così grande importanza per i suoi rumorosi contemporanei come, dopo il corso del tempo, per chi gli è spiritualmente affine, che sta in ascolto nel silenzio della storia».

(S. Kierkegaard, Tagebücher)

Coloquinta

«La conoscenza è per il malvagio come l’acqua per la coloquinta: come l’acqua rende più amara questa pianta, così il malvagio diventa più amaro con la conoscenza» 
(Proverbio arabo)    

Lo specchio del mondo

ll mondo in cui viviamo è fatto così perché è lo specchio di coloro che vi si rispecchiano.

(Sergio Caldarella)

Daoist saying

未有神仙不讀書

There’s never been a Divine Immortal who hasn’t read a book.