Puzzles go back centuries. One of the most well-known puzzles is the ‘wolf, the goat and the cabbage’ puzzle that dates back to at least the 9th century. Known also as the ‘fox, chicken and grain puzzle’, ‘the fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle’,...
Diophantus of Alexandria (born c. AD 200 – c. 214; died c. AD 284 – c. 298) was a Greek mathematician, who was the author of a series of books called Arithmetica, many of which are now lost. His texts deal with solving algebraic equations. Diophantine equations, Diophantine geometry, and...
The Dalai Lama jumped in to affirm the truth of what the Archbishop was saying. “Too much selfcentered thinking is the source of suffering. A compassionate concern for others’ well-being is the source of happiness. I do not have as much experience with physical pain...
Meantime, while they rob and are being robbed, while they break up each other’s repose, while they make each other wretched, their life is without profit, without pleasure, without any improvement of the mind. No one keeps death in view, no one refrains from far-reaching...
After what we have said, a discussion of friendship would naturally follow, since it is a virtue or implies virtue, and is besides most necessary with a view to living. For without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods;...
Every man unconsciously develops a personal philosophy of life that leads him, inspires him and makes him correct himself as the years pass by. We direct our days in accordance with this philosophy, which we use to show other people what we are. It takes little time...
One summer morning a little tailor was sitting on his table near the window. In good spirits, he was sewing with all his might. A peasant woman came down the street crying, "Good jam for sale! Good jam for sale!" That sounded good to the little...
But when I contemplated the origin of anger itself, I observed that different persons are liable to anger from different causes; yet in the case of practically all of them there is present a belief that they are being despised or neglected. For this reason we should assist...
In one of Aesop’s fables -and those are some of the greatest fables in the world, so simple and so significant -a small sheep is drinking water from a mountain stream of crystal-clear water. A great lion comes and naturally becomes interested in the sheep...
Our approach to life becomes increasingly mechanical. The aim of social efforts is to produce things, and. in the process of idolatry of things we transform ourselves into commodities. The question here is not whether they are treated nicely and are well fed (things, too,...
