Categoria: quotes

Labyrinth — Dedalo

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in general, Peter's Log, quotes, thoughts on life and its philosophy

Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Of joyous days ye bring the blissful vision;

The dear, familiar phantoms rise again,

And, like an old and half-extinct tradition,

First Love returns, with Friendship in his train.

Renewed is Pain: with mournful repetition

Life tracks his devious, labyrinthine chain,

And names the Good, whose cheating fortune tore them

From happy hours, and left me to deplore them.

 

Ihr bringt mit euch die Bilder froher Tage,

Und manche liebe Schatten steigen auf;

Gleich einer alten, halbverklungnen Sage

Kommt erste Lieb und Freundschaft mit herauf;

Der Schmerz wird neu, es wiederholt die Klage

Des Lebens labyrinthisch irren Lauf,

Und nennt die Guten, die, um schöne Stunden

Vom Glück getäuscht, vor mir hinweggeschwunden.

 

Voi recate le immagini di giorni spensierati,

ed affiorano ombre che mi furono care;

simili ad un’antica, quasi svanita saga

ritornano con voi gli amici e i primi amori;

si rinnova il dolore, il pianto ripercorre

il corso labirintico di una vita errabonda,

e nomina i magnanimi prima di me scomparsi,

frodati dalla sorte di belle ore felici.

Moving

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in Peter's Log, quotes

And facing the people again, he raised his voice and said:
People of Orphalese, the wind bids me leave you.
Less hasty am I than the wind, yet I must go.
We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.
Even while the earth sleeps we travel.
We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and are scattered.

(Kahlil Gibran: The Prophet, 1923)

Migration – They do it their way

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, quotes

From an article on telesur, published August 20th

The U.K. is also adopting laws to make it less attractive for migrants to come and work in the country. New immigration policies will allow the government to seize wages and deport illegal immigrants without appeal.
“Border Force officers, operating on the ground, provide migrants with a more dissuasive and realistic sense of life for illegal migrants in the United Kingdom. That reflects the United Kingdom government’s work to render the UK a less attractive place for illegal migrants, including through limiting access to housing and health services in the U.K., and through targeting disreputable employers who seek to employ illegal migrants,” the accord states.
As part of the recently signed agreement, the U.K. government will provide US$11.1 million over two years, which will be allocated towards enhancing security measures around the perimeter of the Eurotunnel railhead.
Reading this after having talked a short time ago with a friend in Greece about the hospitality migrants experience in many cases especially by people on the street  … – I guess no further comment is needed.

Intelligence intellectuals and other people

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, quotes

I was rather interested in my fellow-prisoners, who seemed to me in no way morally inferior to the rest of the population, though they were on the whole slightly below the usual level of intelligence , as was shown by the their having been caught.

(Russels: Autobiography: 256)

I had supposed that intellectuals frequently loved truth, but I found here again that not ten per cent of them prefer truth to popularity

(Russels: Autobiography: 240)

Of course, after having read today an article in the German Die Zeit, I am wondering if only the latter is true, and the first should read today: Intellectuals and the rest of the population tend increasingly to lock themselves up in virtual worlds of numeric and algorithmic truth:

Nun, die leise peinliche Antwort lautet, dass ein System scheinbar raffinierter Anreize die Gefühlswelt der Wissenschaften neu codiert hat. An die Stelle des Zorns über die Verhältnisse in der Welt und an die Stelle des interpretativen Abenteuers mit offenem Ausgang ist die Sorge getreten, ob man genug Drittmittel eingeworben und ausreichend Aufsätze in internationalen Zeitschriften publiziert hat. Die Höhe der eigenen Drittmittel und für eine breitere Öffentlichkeit zumeist nahezu unzugängliche Fachaufsätze gelten im Wettlauf um Evaluationspokale inzwischen als der zentrale Ausweis von Kompetenz.

Indeed, as I read recently:

Un mondo dove non serve farsi domande, cercare risposte, pensare, provare a fare bene e costruire.

Thus, they are easily losing increasingly the ground under their feet

History and Rights, and Justice

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in general, quotes, thoughts on life and its philosophy

The nature of injustice is that we might not always see it in our own times,” Kennedy wrote in Friday’s opinion. “The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedom in all of its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning.

A conservative judge made on the occasion of the judgment on gay marriage in the US.

Education

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, general, quotes
Sure, it is a topic, popping up again and again — and we are facing with variations only. Some more here:
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The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
Isaac Asimov
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As a matter of fact student riots of one sort or another, protests against the order that is, kicks against college and university management indicate a healthy growth and a normal functioning of the academic mind.
Youth should be radical. Youth should demand change in the world. Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on. But the old orders should not be moved easily—certainly not at the mere whim or behest of youth. There must be clash and if youth hasn’t enough force or fervor to produce the clash the world grows stale and stagnant and sour in decay. If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all their youthful vim and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow.
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The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
Albert Einstein

Il mondo – Passacaglia

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in joys - what we usually take for it, Peter's Log, quotes

 Vorrei tornare indietro

per rivedere il passato

per comprendere meglio

quello che abbiamo perduto.

Viviamo in un mondo orribile…

siamo in cerca

di un’ esistenza….
La gente è crudele

e spesso infedele,

nessun si vergogna

di dire menzogne

i giovani, i putti

gli uomini tutti

non vale fuggire

si plachi l’ardire.
Vorrei tornare indietro

per rivedere gli errori,

per accelerare

il mio processo interiore,

ero in quinta elementare

entrai

per caso

nella mia esistenza

fatta di giorni allegri,

e di continue esplorazioni

e trasformazioni dell’Io…

Franco Battiato

The sad victory of injustice

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, quotes

Hamlet’s thoughts come to mind

…To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ‘tis Nobler in the mind to suffer

The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,

Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep

No more; and by a sleep, to say we end

The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks

That Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,

To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there’s the rub,

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes Calamity of so long life:

For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,

The Oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s Contumely,

The pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,

The insolence of Office, and the Spurns

Though instead of his proposals it is now even more the time to take up the weapons against those who dealt the deathblow to the European project.