Month: July 2024

Helping someone else in difficulty is the precise point at which civilization begins

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Years ago, a student asked anthropologist Margaret Mead what she thought was the first sign of civilization in a Culture. The student expected Mead to talk about hooks, earthenware pots, or millstones. But she did not, Mead said instead that “the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a broken and then healed … Read more

Be not inhospitable to strangers

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“Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise.” (Motto of ‘Shakespeare and Company’, a book store located in the heart of Paris, on the banks of the Seine) “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” ‭‭ Hebrews‬ … Read more

I will either find a way, or make one

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“Aut viam inveniam, aut faciam” “I will either find a way, or make one” The phrase is attributed to Hannibal, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War, crossing the Alps with elephants; about 218 BC.

Stupidity has made enormous progress

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“Stupidity has made enormous progress. It is a sun that can no longer be stared at. Thanks to the media, it is no longer even the same,it feeds on other myths, it sells itself a lot, it has ridiculed common sense, it spreads terror around itself.” (Ennio Flaiano – “Ombre grigie”, Corriere della sera, 13 … Read more

Have you ever read Borges?

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“Have you ever read Borges?” Montalbano asked him. “What is that, a book?” Mongiardino replied disgustedly. There are people like that, for whom the question of whether they have read a book is more offensive than the question of whether they were intimate friends with Jack the Ripper. (Andrea Camilleri, Italian writer, The First Investigation … Read more

The tendency of people to impose their own opinions

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“The tendency of people, whether they are rulers or simple citizens, to impose their own opinions and tendencies on others as norms of conduct is so strongly supported by some of the best and worst feelings inherent in human nature that it is almost always restrained only by a lack of power; and since the … Read more

Reading only supplies the mind with material for knowledge

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“Reading only supplies the mind with material for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read our own.” (John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding) Locke teaches us that reading should be an active process, not a passive one. Only by reading in this way does it become a transformative experience that helps us grow … Read more

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is …

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In any (social, popular, national) group this happens, and you are banned if you contravene: “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. That gives people the sense that there is free thinking going on, while all … Read more

Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult

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To anyone running their own company, I reccommend reading about military strategy, because it shares goals with management: leadership, command of men, results requested by external political forces. “If one has never personally experienced war, one cannot understand why a commander should need any brilliance and exceptional ability. Everything looks simple. Everything in war is … Read more