I know that I know (next to) nothing

"Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure.""


H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Inner spirit

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."


Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965) 

Lost and found

Here's a haiku I found in one of my notepads. It is dated November 8th, 2011, morning, Orchha, India.


Warm feeling of homeliness
Far away from kin and fatherland
So much happens over tea


Twenty-four hours later, my life took an entirely different turn. So much happens over tea.

Hunter

Hunting bears I will
Hone my blade on my instinct -
Sentry in the wild

12 Last Known Speakers Of A Language

Quite interesting article.

12 Last Known Speakers Of A Language

Another quiet night in Tours

Terrains de sport de l'île Aucard 

 Quai Paul Bert

Vue de la bibliothèque municipale et du pont de fil, du pont Wilson 

Rue Briçonnet 

Jardin Saint-Pierre le Puellier 

Place Plumereau 

Rue Colbert 

Passage du Coeur Navré 

Cathédrale Saint-Gatien, vue de la place Grégoire de Tours 

Rue Manceau 

Angle des rues Racine et de la Bazoche

Thunder and love

"El amor y el rallo dejan la ropa intacta y el corazón en cenizas."

Spanish proverb, untraced origin.

Great expectations

“There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations.” 
Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes.






“I have often noticed that we are inclined to endow our friends with the stability of type that literary characters acquire in the reader's mind. No matter how many times we reopen 'King Lear,' never shall we find the good king banging his tankard in high revelry, all woes forgotten, at a jolly reunion with all three daughters and their lapdogs. Never will Emma rally, revived by the sympathetic salts in Flaubert's father's timely tear. Whatever evolution this or that popular character has gone through between the book covers, his fate is fixed in our minds, and, similarly, we expect our friends to follow this or that logical and conventional pattern we have fixed for them. Thus X will never compose the immortal music that would clash with the second-rate symphonies he has accustomed us to. Y will never commit murder. Under no circumstances can Z ever betray us. We have it all arranged in our minds, and the less often we see a particular person, the more satisfying it is to check how obediently he conforms to our notion of him every time we hear of him. Any deviation in the fates we have ordained would strike us as not only anomalous but unethical. We could prefer not to have known at all our neighbor, the retired hot-dog stand operator, if it turns out he has just produced the greatest book of poetry his age has seen.” 
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita.






"Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation."

Elbert Hubbard, writer (1859-1915)






"We must rediscover the distinction between hope and expectation."

Ivan Illich, sociologist (1926-2002)

Bridging minds

"Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass."


Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)

La triste fin du grand séquoia du jardin botanique de Tours

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