Confucius was born in China around the time of the Buddha in India and Pythagoras in Greece, 552 B.C. Like most of the truly great ethical and moral leaders, he wrote nothing. His teachings were recorded (by his disciples) into four major works a century after...
This earth was not here from the beginning, nor will it last until the end. Just as I am born and I will be no more, so will this earth and sun be no more – and a time will come when these moons, stars...
Once through the forest Alone I went; To seek for nothing My thoughts were bent. I saw i' the shadow A flower stand there As stars it glisten'd, As eyes 'twas fair. I sought to pluck it,-- It gently said: "Shall I be gather'd Only to fade?" With all its roots I dug it with care, And took it...
I walk and it gets dark. I make up my mind and it gets dark. No, I am not sad. I have been curious and studious. I know of everything. A bit of everything. The names of flowers when they shrivel, when the words become green and when we become cold. How...
In Greek mythology, Ixion (/ɪkˈsaɪ.ən/ ik-SY-ən; Greek: Ἰξίων, gen.: Ἰξίωνος) was king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly, and a son of Ares, or Leonteus, or Antion and Perimele, or the notorious evildoer Phlegyas, whose name connotes "fiery". Peirithoös was his son...
Who Was Tchaikovsky? Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's work was first publicly performed in 1865. In 1868, his First Symphony was well-received. In 1874, he established himself with Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat Minor. Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878 and spent the rest of...
T. LUCRETII De rerum natura liber II, v. 37-61 Of The Nature Of Things: BOOK II - PROEM Wherefore, since Treasure, nor rank, nor glory of a reign Avail us naught for this our body, thus Reckon them likewise nothing for the mind: Save then perchance, when thou beholdest forth Thy legions...
You are on your way to a concert. At an intersection, you encounter a group of people, all staring at the sky. Without even thinking about it, you peer upwards too. Why? Social proof. In the middle of the concert, when the soloist is displaying...
Thomas Hobbes (1588—1679) was one of England's greatest political thinkers. What's less well known is that he was also an early fitness fanatic. He would go out for a long walk every morning, striding quickly up hills so as to get out of breath. In...
Question 1: BELOVED MASTER, MY GIRLFRIEND TOLD ME I AM A LITTLE BORING, NOT VERY JUICY, VERY DEPENDENT AND A VICTIM. THEN I FELT VERY GUILTY AND DEPRESSED AND UTTERLY UNWORTHY. I BEGAN TO FEEL INSIDE ME A BIG NO: TOWARDS EXISTENCE, LIFE, LOVE, YOU. MEANWHILE I...
It’s bedtime. Kneeling at the foot of my bed, head bowed, hands together, I murmur my prayer in a low voice. I’m ten. After a brief review of the day’s sins, I make a request of God, our all-powerful Creator. He knows how regularly I...
Once upon a time, a certain King was hunting in a great forest, and he chased a wild beast so eagerly that none of his attendants could follow him. When evening drew near he stopped and looked around him, and then he saw that he...
We have forgotten who we really are and consequently have taken on a new identity that leaves us empty inside, because it doesn’t fit in with the way we live today (whatever we may have materially). In order to make up for this feeling of...
There is another trick which, as soon as it is practicable, makes all others unnecessary. Instead of working on your opponent's intellect by argument, work on his will by motive; and he, and also the audience if they have similar interests, will at once be...
Whatever happens around you, don’t take it personally. Using an earlier example, if I see you on the street and I say, “Hey, you are so stupid,” without knowing you, it’s not about you; it’s about me. If you take it personally, then perhaps you believe you...
I felt unable to go upstairs. My life was wrecked. I thought vaguely of running away and never returning or of drowning myself. I sat down in the dark on the bottom step of our outside staircase, withdrew into myself and abandoned myself to my misery. Lina found me there...
What are the essential things that make a wife happy? I DON'T KNOW ABOUT WIVES. I'm single. You're asking the wrong person. But I have noticed many husbands. So it's not my experience, just my opinion: There are two things necessary to make a wife happy. The first...
A few years ago when I traveled to New Zealand to do a conference, I stayed in a hotel in Christchurch. One evening I was thirsty and started looking for a Coke machine. When I couldn’t find one and I saw a door marked “Staff,”...
English Version: I´m going to write about one of the short stories included in the book "Kurz und Buendig,Die schnellesten Geschichten der Welt ( short and colourful,the quickest short stories in the world")by different German writers. The story is by Kurt Tucholsky ,a jewish German journalist...
After receiving the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918, Max Planck went on tour across Germany. Wherever he was invited, he delivered the same lecture on new quantum mechanics. Over time, his chauffeur grew to know it by heart: ‘It has to be boring giving...
Sardanapalus (/ˌsɑːrdəˈnæpələs/; sometimes spelled Sardanapallus) was, according to the Greek writer Ctesias, the last king of Assyria, although in actuality Ashur-uballit II (612–605 BC) holds that distinction. Ctesias' book Persica is lost, but we know of its contents by later compilations and from the work...
Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him,...
One day it happened: I was in Jaipur and a man came in the morning to see me, and he said, "You are divine. " I said, "You are right!" He was sitting there and another man came and he was very much against me, and then...
One of those dread evils which spread terror far and wide, and which Heaven, in its anger, ordains for the punishment of wickedness upon earth - a plague in fact; and so dire a one as to make rich in one day that grim ferryman...
[…] Thus week by week the prisoners of plague put up what fight they could. Some, like Rambert, even contrived to fancy they were still behaving as free men and had the power of choice. But actually it would have been truer to say that by...
Harry Harlow’s experiments with wire monkeys are central demonstrations in the psychology of attachment. Harlow was able to show that infant monkeys cared more for a soft surrogate mother than a metal milk-bearing one, and with this finding, a whole science of touch was born....
There was once a house that was overrun with Mice. A Cat heard of this, and said to herself, "That's the place for me," and off she went and took up her quarters in the house, and caught the Mice one by one and ate...
By a peculiar weakness of human nature, people generally think too much about the opinion which others form of them; although the slightest reflection will show that this opinion, whatever it may be, is not in itself essential to happiness. Therefore it is hard to...
Margaret Evelyn de Arias DBE, born Margaret Evelyn Hookham, known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn, (18 May 1919 – 21 February 1991) was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet (formerly the Sadler's Wells Theatre Company),...
The Lion somehow grew suspicious, from rumours it heard, that the scales had been falsified in its law courts; so, having found a leisure time, it determined to investigate the state of its dominions. Having gone to the shore, it found that the good gossip...
