We’re about to run our heads against the same unyielding barrier, and once again, the brass seem to have concluded that our approach isn’t working because we’re not running at the wall fast enough.
– Marko Kloos: Lines of Departure
Videnskaben!
Nu hvor store dele af befolkningen på kort tid tilsyneladende er blevet eksperter i epidemiologi og virologi kan man jo håbe på tilsvarende løft på andre videnskabelige områder. Jeg foreslår at vi bruger sommerferien på en intens offentlig debat om græsk filosofi. Vi kan jo godt!
– Svend Brinkmann på Twitter
Toppen set fra bunden
“Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”
– G. K. Chesterton
Forspildt
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me!
– William Shakespeare: Richard III
Unsummoned
I’m 35 and have not yet received a call to adventure and am starting to worry I’m not a protagonist.
– Michael Meir Saltzman på Twitter
Bud: Ego og intellekt adskilt
Så hvad er intellektuel ydmyghed helt præcis? Grundlæggende går det ud på fire ting:
- at have respekt for andre synspunkter
- at tøjle sin overselvsikkerhed
- at holde sit ego og sit intellekt adskilt
- at være åben over for at ændre mening.
Man kunne også sige det på en anden måde: At være intellektuelt ydmyg handler om at træne hjernen til at tænke mere som en forsker og mindre som en forsvarsadvokat.
– Jesper Olsen: Her er en simpel kur mod dumme skænderier og dybe samfundskonflikter. Den begynder med at erkende, hvor lidt vi egentlig ved. Zetland 05.05.2020
Afblomstringens skønhed
If the rose at noon has lost the beauty it had at dawn, the beauty it had then was real. Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.
-The Razor’s Edge, W. Somerset Maugham
Fremtider
“Why didn’t you warn us?” the people asked.
“I can only see futures you would believe could happen,” the soothsayer said.
“Are you saying we choose the future?”
The soothsayer looked at them. “No. And yes. And, the more you can imagine, the better you can choose.”
– Via MicroSFF på Facebook.
In so many words
A picture is worth a thousand lies.
Alt er i altet
“Fabulous weather, isn’t it?” said the chauffeur, looking up at the sky. “It’s–how can I put it?–crystal clear.”
I nodded.
“When it gets this clear, God’s messages must have no trouble getting through at all,” I offered.
“Nothing of the kind,” said the chauffeur with a grin. “There are messages already in all things. In flowers, in the rocks, in the clouds…”
“And cars?”
“In cars too.”
“But cars are made in factories.” Typical me.
“Whosoever makes it, God’s will is worked into it.”
“As in ear lice?” Her contribution.
“As in the very air,” corrected the chauffeur.
“Well then, I suppose that cars made in Saudi Arabia have Allah in them.”
“They don’t produce cars in Saudi Arabia.”
“Really?” Again me.
“Really.”
“Then what about cars produced in America for export to Saudi Arabia? What god’s in them?” queried my girlfriend.
A difficult question.
– Haruki Murakami: A Wild Sheep Chase, p. 151