Cristache

Gheorghiu

A K ind of
Reflect ion s

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Preliminary Edition

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ISBN: 978-973-99553-8-6
973-99553-8-x

3
They say that only
great men could have
great defects. It is not
my case, so that not
longer censure me so
much.

4
 Verba volant, scripta manet

Writing finds its justification in the

ephemerality of speaking.

Today, things are different.

Speaking can be recorded
in many ways.

And not only the words.

Paper is only a support

among many others.

Besides,
it is expensive.

5
 Copy rights

Some people wrote on paper

and multiplied the papers.

Others wrote inside me.

Unfortunately, they have problems

with the multiplication.

Or, maybe, fortunately.

6
 Progress

While beginner as skier

I used to be very glad
for every progress.

With every year

I became more and more
good at it.

But, as much I were advancing

as smaller room for progress
was remaining for me.

I was discontent, of course,

and if I ever fall down,
it was a tragedy
for a week.

The moral:
the progress may
prejudice our
happiness.

7
8
 Modern Poetry

For some time past,

the poetry became prose,
although the reverse
would
have been much
better.

Or, maybe, I looked rather much

in the mirror of water,
where everything is
seen
inversely.

Sometimes, it trembles.
The water, of course.
And the mirror, too.

Maybe just this is its beauty.

Of the poetry!
The prose from it
is what trembles.

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What gorgeous would be
inversely!!!

10
Greenland and global heating

One wishes Greenpeace to be an

ideal
and everyone to struggle for
it.

I wonder!
They found it long time ego
and even gave a name
to it.

Greenland they called it,

although it was almost
white.

To follow its green destine

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 does not seem to be an
ideal.

12
 The Virgin Sofia

„Philosophy keeps its virginity

in spite of numerous
violations.”
It was not me writing it, but y
Gasset.

So, I declare as platonic

my love to Sofia.

Not for other reason, but

I do not like fruitless
gestures.

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14
 From sublime to ridicule

Since Socrates till today,

philosophy traversed the full
way
from sublime to
ridicule.

Probably, at the beginning,

it was not just sublime, but
it proposed to be.

Sublimation means
a transformation
from solid state direct
into a gaseous
one.

This is what explains its disparity,

without we could observe it.

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What a pity! And we loved it so
much. . .

Especially in the fluid state.

New York

New York is fascinating

at the first visit.

At the second one,

an exit gate
you will be searching
for.

And if it is to not find it,

a new-Yorker you will
become.

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With small 'n'
and “VIP” cap.

17
 The Past

Bootless is to close your eyes,

for the past to move away.

Even what you don’t want seeing

clearer appear in your mind.

Better is to assume your deeds,

Learn from the past what
can
and, make at least a
happy future.

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 The talent

The talent of many artists

consumed itself
during the admitting
exam.

19
 The rules of play

The rules of play

are kept in plays.

The politicians do not know

how to play,
unfortunately.

20
 Don’t translate every word

As everywhere,
a ticket toward Santa Fe
is more expensive
single as
return.

There are also some cheaper

tickets
for children and the elder
persons.

All these are true,

as long you don’t translate
all words
and leave them
as they
are.

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Santa Fe, for example!

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 The Way of Vacancy

“Route 66” - the way of dream,

vacancy's dream.

Chicago is behind.

Santa Monica is forward,

in mind and in spirit.

The opposite is backward to house

and work.

Old memories kept in the song as

well.

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 Disjunction

If Marx had been a scientist,

he would have experimented
his system on animals,
first.

George Orwell did it in literature,

but
without effect in politics.

The moral: politics and literature

are disjunctive.

24
 Shades and lights

A beam of light is necessary

for make an object to shine.

Nothing glitters, instead,

in the dazzling light of day.
A little shade would be
useful, then.

25
 Yes and no

People express their agreement

in different ways,
accordingly with
their language: yes,
da, oui
and many
others.

The disagreement, instead

contain at least an 'n'.

Is it accidentally?

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 An accident

A car, named Romania,

left the road and
plunged in abyss.
It was August
23, 1944.

What nice it seems to be!

Mountains and valleys
were going by us . . .
And what pleasant it was . . .

But suddenly,
our smooth fly broke itself.
A terrible jolt followed
and
finally, even the
car

disintegrated.

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The precipice used to have a
bottom.
What a tragedy!
Who could be think?

28
 A riddle

The percent of wrongdoers

is equal on the earth.

There are bank-breakers only

where
there are banks.
No banks, no bank-breakers.

What a clever boy I am!

In communism there were not

thieves,
as there was nothing to be
stolen.

And then,
the wrongdoing
what they deal with?

Guess my riddle!

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Do not say that all of them
became politicians. There were not
so much rooms.

30
 Choices

It is good when
some alternative solutions
are possible.

Even water is a good alternative of

wine,
but not every day.

31
 Haiku to George, my friend

Inspiring dreams,
capricious times,
grape.

32
 Humpty-Dumpty

You win
when lose,
if know
how to arise.

33
 The Real Man

Between extreme egoism

and extreme altruism,
the real man finds
his own way.

The egoism is natural;

the altruism is acquired;
the way, of course,
wretched.

34
 Destiny?

From an utopia
to another,
we are drifting
endlessly.

35
 Feminine ambitions

Women
wishing to be
equal with men
have not
ambition.

36
 Squander

With all the penury of intelligence,

people do not stop to waste the
little one that they have, trying to
learn what is their sense on the
earth, when it is evident for
anyone that they do not have any.

37
 Intelligence

At ants, bees and others like them,

collective intelligence is more
efficient than the individual one.

One by one, they do not have

mind almost at all. Their societies,
instead, are complex organized
and work perfectly.

At mankind is the contrary: the

individuals are intelligent, but in
collectivity they are self-
destructive.

It seems that too much

intelligence could harm.

Or, maybe, the word intelligence is

not well defined.

38
 T-shirt

T-shirts
were invented by
Venus de Milo.

39
 Science of Politics

If a science of politics had existed,

the politicians would not have
existed.

40
 Great Heat

On the telegraph wires

the birds put on notes
the heat of the day.

What a great things the

technology is!

Without wires,
there were not notes, and
without notes,
we could not
understand
birth's song.

Can it be true?

What a heat. . .

41
 They want us to be uniform

Because we are different,

they dress us in uniforms,
in conveniences,
in rules.

But we are not uniform.

This is why
we wear the uniforms
in different ways.

42
 The way
The shorter route
between two peaks of
mountains
is not rectilinear.

You need to descent from the first

one,
in order to ascend on the
other.

After a victory,
you cannot
jump directly
in another
victory.

The one who thinks to do it

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 did not really know neither
of them.

44
 Ideas

Bad ideas are good

. . . as fertilizer
for philosophy.

45
 Civilization

What could we say about the

society in which
the civilized man
is weak
in face of
a rude
one?

46
 Without wings

The wings of any society are its

intellectuals.

„Otez les ailes à un papillon; c’est

une chenille” (Chamfort).

This is what
Romania became
after the Russians
decimated its

intellectuals.

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 From the childhood

Any person forms his mentality

during
his childhood,
especially as
adolescent.
The rest is
varnish.

Let me know what you have learnt

then
and I say who you are.

Let me know what you read then

and I say what you are.

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49
 The “happy” universe of
childhood

Ah, how sharp my knees were

aching,
when I used to fall
and how much I
wanted
to grow elder.

The grown-ups
do not knock at
their knees, I
observed.

Instead, they are ingrates. They

assert to be the only ones having
problems, that only their problems
are count, that only they are
stressed, even – as a matter of
fact – they are those stressing us.

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51
 Passions

Passion is immanent to every

person.

The hazard make from him

an artist or killer,
scientist or politician,
poet or thieve.

But, ”Le hasard ne favorise que les

esprits préparés”. (Pasteur)

- And who deals with spirit?

- The hazard as well.

This is so, because man is first

spirit and ultimately matter.

- And if it would be inverse?

- Inverse we all are . . . what we
are.

52
 Mafia

Mafia?
A naivety!
We nationalized it.

53
 Kant and us

Königsberg is the town where Kant

lived.

Kaliningrad is the name that

Stalin gave it
for glorifying Kalinin.

Who said that want to get rid of

communism?
Maybe of Kant!

It seems that some things must be

de-kant-ed.

Or, maybe de-kalinin-ed.

54
 Crucial Moments

There are moments when

people think that,
in just that moment,
the intelligence
came down
on their heads.

It is true,
not all of them,
but always
much too many.

How could we call such moments?

But such people?

55
 Inhabitants

In some towns, I liked the

museums,
in other ones, people.
In some towns, only people liked
me.
In every town I liked something.

In some towns, I didn't like the

museums,
in other ones, I didn't like
people.
There is not town in which
everything liked me.

To like me, it would be build

accordingly with my test, although
I did not define it, yet.

There are towns. There are

villages.

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 They are dwelt.
People call them localities.

If the localities are not dwelt, they

are said “archaeological sites”.

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I would not like to
live in an
archaeological site,
not even as
exhibit.

As unique inhabitant,
I should feel
guilty for
all errors,
which
surely

exist.

We are the amount of our errors.

It is good that,
at least,
we are something,
if we cannot be
somebody.

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59
 I am somebody

I sacrificed what I owned,

for acquire what I wanted.
I acquired what I wanted,
and I became somebody
else.

I am poorer for what I lost,

but do not regret what I
became.

If both of then I had had,

I would have been
a different one,
if this would be
possible.

Someone else, instead of me,

maybe would do. But that
one
could not be me.

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And, if was not to be someone
else,
I am glad to be, at least,
someone.

61
Between altruism and egotism

The struggle for existence is the

essence of any being.

From the smallest cell to the most

complex organism, life is an
endless endeavour for an
individual's betterment based on
his environment.

It stops only when he exhausts his

resources, or meets with a similar
individual with whom he has to
share the same resources.

An individual's ideal is a selfish

one. Accepting the other is
subsequently. It comes from the
contact with the environment and
man learns it during his life.

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Egoism is genetic.
Altruism is acquired.

63
 Between extremes

If someone had taught us what

the right way is,
we should not have
searched
the true
between two extreme
equal impossible.

64
 Paradise? How is that?

We have a very fecund

imagination
concerning the horror of
Hell.

Instead, we are awkward

imagining Paradise.

A question of specialization.

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 Society

Man lives in group and dies alone.

The death the religion deal with.

So, the individual's problem is
solved.

The life? Nobody deals with it.

This is why we have so many

social problems.

66
 From Chaos

The Chaos was,

for the beginning,
namely something
without shape
and limits.
Something in which,
albeit anything is possible,
nothing occurs.

But it was God who came.

He first made skies and earth,

so he draw a
separating line
between them.
So far,
he didn't created,
but delimited.

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Nowhere is said,
neither in Bible or
somewhere else
that someone
would
created
Chaos.

In all religions,
Chaos existed before.

The Pan-creator,
improperly named so,
did not created,
but separated.

Drawing a border
between sky and earth,
he created two restrictions:
- earth no longer be
sky;

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 - sky no longer be
earth.

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And things did not stop here.

Carrying on,
he separated
light from dark,
earth from
waters etc.

He enforced
limits after limits,
restrictions after
restrictions.

And did not stop neither here.

On smaller and smaller spaces,

he organised the mater
in more and more odd
entities,
even small
monsters

70
Among them, we are, as well.

71
He obliged us to fight
against everything around
us,
even each others.

The limits imposed

by the Creator
have became
more and more

suffocating.

And all these

are to be
agreeable to us.

72
 Entropy

- The engine of life

is inequality.

- I know,
a question of entropy.

- This is for
not any people
to catch the idea.

- What democracy would be then?

73
 I and he

Any “I”
wants to extend his border
over his neighbour's
one.

To integrate it, if possible.

“We” is an abstract notion

existing only in grammars.

“You” do not exist.

There are only “I” and “He”.

“He” is the one

who must be assimilate.

“I” is the only entity with sense.

74
 The art of negotiation

God, make to rain,

and I will do an oblation

75
 Burglar's belief

Help me, God,

maybe they will
not catch me!

76
 Religion / Church

With all church’s opposition,

people want their religion
back.

And they will get it.

77
 Religion?

Something that gives sense to life,

in which one can believe.

78
 Schism

If Jesus had realized that

he will provoke a schism,
he would have studied
the Science of
Politics.

Or, maybe, botanic,

as at herbage is the same.

79
 Alternatives

Stupid, but happy? / Clever and

unhappy?
There is not a middle way?

- Not as long you didn't find it.

- Are you being a clever?
- Some people think they already
find it.
- These ones are only ignorant.
- Don't you have a more
reasonable way?
- To search for is your destiny.
- Mankind will find a reasonable
way only after they will exhaust all
others possibilities, and these
ones are infinite.
- I know it. Someone else said it,
it's true, in a different context.

80
- I have an idea: to recognize that
we are stupid.
- Your optimism is exaggerated.

81
 Tax for profit

The one
who works
pays.

The one
who plays truant
receives.

Be blessed the
name of state!

82
 Law

Infringements
could not exist
without laws.

Here is something deserving to

think about.

83
 Pedagogic

Pedagogy is a gift.
Some ones own it,
others don’t.

The universities making teachers

should verify the applicant's
talent, as those of music do.

84
 Becoming

“Man begun as a worm”,

Geoffroy said it, in an
optimist-evolutionist
vision.

The reciprocally would be to arrive

there,
having in view that
we started from
Creator’s hands
as superior beings.

Personally,
I prefer a more static
variant:
to remain men,
if possible!

85
 Pseudo-haiku at seaside

Long neck,
the head away,
giraffe.

86
 A Ludic One

We think differently
But laugh similarly
When laughing.

87
 In Theatre

Camels
don't play theatre,
albeit their faces
are very
expressive.

88
 Nona
(the ninth part)

During the Middle Eve,

it was the part of the harvest
due to the feudal.

What a time . . .

89
 The Right Way

- The church show us the right

way.
- Even in the market orientated
economy?
- Especially there.
- How is that?
- By priests' example.
Their avarice is remarkable.

90
 Dilettantes

The writers of a single book

remain dilettantes?

Still, some of them are famous.

91
 Fiction

Fairy tales teach children

ideas difficult to
explain and
understand
in other ways.

Literary fiction
does the same for
some grown-ups.

92
 How we read?

Following the advice of Spain's

ambassador,
George Sand lead Chopin
in Majorca, even its climate
was
improper for his healthiness,
in that season.

Chopin, immigrant from Poland,

was not informed.

Spain's ambassador
was doing touristic publicity,
probably.
He didn't care for a poor
Polish
about whom he didn't feel
that
will become a celebrity.

93
Instead, George Sand ought to
know
the climate in Baleare
Islands.
If yes, her gesture was
criminal.
If not, it means that she was
ignorant.

94
Everything I read now,
is subordinated to the
question
“how clever / informed used
to be
the author?”

95
 Dilemma

Some persons anger on me,

although I do not say
nothing new.

On the contrary,
I say what they knew before,
even better than me.

It seems that just this is what

annoy they,
but I still do not know why
they angry on me.

96
 The writer Montesquieu

If a graduated from a secondary

school were asked what he knows
about Montesquieu, he probably
will answer something like: French
writer, 18 century, “Persian
Letters”. If he has a good memory,
maybe he will mention “The Spirit
of Laws”, about which he will not
be able to say much, because he
did not read it. It is a book for
specialists. Montesquieu was a
magistrate.

As a recognised classic of
universal literature, nobody
impugns his qualities and is
contented with what people say
about. Still, at a more attentive
analyze, a paradox appears. From
the literary point of view, “Persian
Letters” is far from a masterpiece.

97
It is not a monument of the
literature able to justify the
presence of the author on the list
of great celebrities. Montesquieu
himself would have been very
malcontent if all his activity had
been limited at this book of about
200 pages.

98
He was passionately fond of
philosophy, disciple of Hobbs and
Lock, and proposed himself to
apply their ideas in the society of
his time, which he did in “The
Spirit of Laws”. His implication in
literature comes from his efforts
for convey these ideas toward
groups of people as large as
possible.

“Letters” are small essays and

only the titles give the impression
of a correspondence. Without
them, Montesquieu would remain
a magistrate-philosopher unknown
by literary world. Instead, only
with “Persian Letters” he would
entered not even in literature.

His complex personality make

from him a celebrity, because – in

99
the last analysis – a writer is
someone having something to say,
namely someone who want to
communicate with people, let he
be an magistrate.

100
 Philo-Sophia

It is beyond doubt that philosophy

is fruitless.
The problem is that we
cannot live
without it.

This doesn't mean that we all are

sage.
Not, not, with the sapience we
extricate.

Love for sapience

is what trouble us.

This is so because
we always want
what we do not own.

101
102
 Scholar philosophy

Scholar philosophy is something

as a ray of light
reflected by some
heads
without inner
light.

103
 Dali

- I heard that Dali's art

would be a form of
resistance
against the madness.

- I thought that
it is madness itself.

104
 Paradigm

Every civilisation
has its paradigm,
subsist al long as
its paradigm is credible
and disappears when it burns up
its paradigm.

105
 Felix

To be happy (felix) meant in Latin

language
to be fruitful and full of
success.
A possible achievable goal!

Today, to be happy means

to be flooded with what you
suppose to enjoy you
without any
effort.

As wishes always exceed the

possibilities,
happiness becomes an
objective
unfeasible.

106
107
 Precision

A clock shows exactly the time

twice a day, if it does not
work.

A working clock shows the time

approximately.

Which one do you prefer?

108
 Genial Ideas

Some genial ideas

could come us by drinking;
never after.

109
 Stupidity

Stupidity is not sagacity with the

sign minus, but the lack of them,
as the darkness is not a different
sort of light, but its lack.

This is why the great mistakes

belong to the great smart people
and not to the great idiots.

110
 The Saint Sophia

It seems that sagacity was holy,

formerly.

111
 Traces

The Romanian territory,

was crossed by many
waves of barbarians
and non-
barbarians.

All of them leaved traces.

Our opinions about them are

different.

We are proud with some

but are shame with others.
We have fellow feeling for some
and scorn for others.
We even hate some.

Everything accordingly to their

traces.

112
113
 Mediocrity

It is much gravely to have

mediocre illusions
than to live mediocre.

For a mediocre life

there are excuses and
justifications.

Not for the mediocrity of the

illusions.

114
 Teachers

Extremely, there are two kinds of

teachers:
- Those that teach the children
things that they did not know in
reality, like those for history and
geography;
- Those that experienced first what
they have to teach, like those for
physics.

The first ones can be congenial;

the others usually are boring.

But the most attractive are those

that do not know what are they
talking about.

115
 Schools of Philosophy

The schools of philosophy

consumes intellectual energy of
the students, coaching them in
handling a specific language,
making him, in this way, inapt for
free thinking. The future
philosopher excludes himself from
the society and society, in his turn,
doesn't really need of such
“specialist”.

116
 Opinions

When you are not sure on your

ideas,
do not over-solicit your
friends;
prove them with those that
are not tolerant with you

117
 Verification

If you want to verify your ideas,

try to expound them to
someone;
you will correct them even
before exposing.

118
 How the ideas come us

For some things

we have to struggle:
for money;
for women / men;
for social positions
and what not.

Only the ideas come alone,

unbidden.

Under one condition:

to had struggled for
something.

Corollary:
you have those ideas that
things you have
struggled for
gave to you.

119
120
 Differences

What makes us to be different

are not the truths which
we succeeded to learn and
are known by many others,
but the ways through
which we arrived to
them.

121
 Trust in ourselves

We often know
what other people
want for us.

Rarely we know
what ourselves
want.

And when we think

that we know
we are deceived.

122
 Old or Eternal?

Some things are old,

other eternal: concepts,
ideas.

The eternal ones

do not become obsolete.

How we discern them?

This is one of the art of life.

For some people it is a gift.

Others learn to do it
during their life.

Some sooner,
some slower,
some never.

For the last ones,

everything seems to be
obsolete,

123
even the future.

124
 Freedom

The condition of freedom

is the absence of
any dependence.

The dependence is born when

you pay the offer with your
soul,
as you couldn't control
your
temptations.

125
„Non-understandable” artists

Art is a way of communication

with specific means.
Everybody agree with
this general assertion.

The communication exists,

when the idea issued by
emitter
arrive safe and sound
till the receiver.

The means are different and,

due to them,
he is a great or small
artist.

But, if he doesn't succeed to

communicate,
It means that he doesn't
exist
as an intelligent being.

126
This is why the pretension to be
non-understood is a lie.

127
 The Social Man

As we live in society,
our thoughts must take a
transmissible shape.

128
 Sagacity Claims Detachment

We achieve the abilities

in contact with things.

We manage ourselves
in the problems of life.

Still, we achieve the sagacity

only after we detach
ourselves
from all these.

But we can detach from them

only after we become expert
in resolving them,
which supposes
that
we thoroughly studied
the field in all
its details.

129
 Forms of express

Artists look for new

forms of express.

The young ones do it even before

to have something to
express.

130
 Originality at any price

The most unfitted means

to become original
is to want this.

131
 Love and timidity

Timidity denotes
a kind of spiritual noblesse.

Rarely,
maybe never,
the real lover
can express their
love.

Love is noblesse itself.

Maybe this is why

it is so difficult
to express.

132
 Poet's Love

The poet speaks easily

about love
because he didn't
really
know it.

133
 Excess of sexuality

The excess of sexuality

in the nowadays art and
literature
reflects a tendency of
coming back to
nature.

134
 Coming back to Nature

For mankind,
coming back to nature
means coming back
to animalism.

We are fully aware of this?

If yes, it means to recognise

that we make a mistake.

When?

135
 Dreams

The dreams are ours.

The reality is of everyone.

Respect others'
dreams.

136
 Conscience of Conscience

We are unconscious
if we imagine that
we have the
conscience of
our conscience.

If we had been conscious,

we would have built our
future
in a different way.

137
 Technological development

We accuse the technological

development for
man's moving off from
philosophy and
religion.

But technological development

always existed.

The wheel invention and using the

fire
were even more
revolutionary
then electronics or
cosmos
conquest.

Does it means that primitive man

138
 was more philosopher then
us?
“Philo” maybe!
“Sofos”? I doubt.

139
It seems that, in our evolution,
a point of optimum existed.
If yes, that was the
moment
in which we was
wrong.

Here is a paradox:
to make the greatest
mistake
in the best moment
of thought.

140
 Portrait in the Mirror

I am looking in a mirror and see

the portrait of a man that
sing.

I do not recognise myself.

Besides, I do not sing.

It is in Picasso's style.

I do not recognize the melody

either.

I have a hope: maybe the mirror is

broken.

It's a blessing that it is not a

Rubens.

141
 The gift and the girl

I knew a very revolted girl

because people used to
admire
a famous singer.

She could not be so gifted, in her

opinion,
as both of them had been
class mates
in primary school.

Consequently,
they have equal rights.

142
 Decisions

Decision are as easy to take

as little you understand
the complexity of the
problem.

143
 The Rest

A worker may repose himself

by reading a book.

An intellectual may repose himself

by making a manual activity.

Let me know how you repose

and I will say you who are.

This is not true in case you

repose at work.

144
 Sword

It is easier to pull out

the sword from its scabbard,
than replace it.

Maybe I read it
sometime, in my
childhood,
but what you find by
yourself
seems to be wiser.

145
 Concentration

Do not let the up-and-downs of life

to take hold on your
thought.

Keep your thinking

clean and free.

Only so you can lead it

toward what it is worthy.

146
 Style

Style is not a supplement, a hat,

but the essence.

147
 Thinking

Our thinking
is like the earth
in which the ideas
germinate.

The ideas comes to us from

contacts with our fellows
or from books.

Many seeds perishes

as they do not find
the adequate earth.

Reciprocal statement is not true.

148
 Receptivity

We pick up only those ideas

that graft itself on the
knowledge existing
there,
like a Lego.

Some older ideas are stimulated in

this way.

Paradoxically, we call the new

ideas
as being suggestions,
while the old ones as
original.

149
150
 Life

The end of life

is part of
life.

151
 Artistic Currents

In any epoch, there is a

dominant artistic current.
We can identify it by
its form of
express.

The fond is eternal.

This is why,
artist's enlist, without
discernment,
into a fashionable
current
does not achieve
value..

152
153
 Love

If we knew
why we love,
we would not love
any longer.
Maybe!

154
 Love is blind

One says that love is blind.

I think that we are blind.

Love comes where

our wit cannot reach.

155
 Bluntness

As great is
a bluntness,
as difficult is
to refute it.

156
The Poetics of bluntness

There is shoddy poesy.

I did not hear about a poetic

stupidity,
although some people try.

157
 Nobility

Many people throw off

the nobility in risible
without realise that
themselves
become
ignoble.

158
 Artistic currents

Some artistic currents are like the

fashion:
they obsolete themselves
and
disappear without
trace.

Other ones invent new possibilities

of expressing.

Modernism, post-modernism etc,

are not currents, but
only periods of
questing,
unfortunately
sterile.

159
 Culture

The culture (of a person or people)

is visible in the capacity of
expressing
complex notions.

160
 Infinite

Between small infinite and the

great one
our world exists,
as an infinitesimal
quantity.

161
 The Error

On our way toward anywhere,

the errors are inevitable.

The success depend on

how soon we recognise
and correct them.

162
 Russians outside

Why there are so many Russian

people throughout the world?

It's because, learning English

language by ear, they confuse
Moscow with “must go”, and
leave.

And how they succeed outside?

One of their founders had a

predestined name: Dolgoruki. It
means “long hand”, an expression
for thieves.

163
 The good example

Sometimes, we correct ourselves

thanks to bad example;
almost never,
thanks to the good one.

164
 Evolution

You cannot develop yourself

without changing yourself.

Start with undershirt clothes.

165
 Opposed

Among those five fingers of a

hand, only one is opposed.
Without it, the hand would not be
hand, but foot.

What we would become with more

opposing fingers?

With the all ones would not be

possible, as it would be a foot, but
for walking backward.

166
 Modesty?

Modesty?
Let's be seriously;
where did you see it?

Self-pride?
Without it we would not
exist.

167
 Present

We are between
“it was” and “it will be”.

What it is between them

makes the difference
between
“it may become” and
“it could have became”
(if it had …ed).

168
 The Europeans

The Europeans began to be

heretics
and finished as
erotic.

169
 Inopportune laud

One day, I lauded somebody for

something really meritorious, in
my opinion.

But the man was accustomed to

be fawn upon and considered my
prise an offence face to his
grandeur.

I understood then the fact for

which I lauded him was an
accident in his life. Or, maybe, his
life was an accident. It depends
from which angle you are looking.

No matter of the angle, my

gesture was a mistake, for which I
cannot excuse myself, as it means
to commit a new error.

170
 Gold?

Heraclitus said: “Between gold and

straws, the donkey prefers draws”.

Nothing new under the sun.

171
 The arriviste

An arriviste tried to climb on the

top of the pyramid, removing
those from his way, not keeping
account that they had built the
pyramid. He succeeded, but –
making leave those more valuable
than him – the pyramid became so
tiny, that it disappeared.

172
 Philosophizing

Every people philosophize;

the instruments are
different.

173
 Difference

There is a difference
between genius and
stupidity:
genial people are
limits.

174
 Eternal returning

The old Greeks intuited the infinite

only concerning the time, but not
for the space.

The space used to be finite for

them. Hence, the idea that, in the
infinity of time, all possible
combinations of the atoms –
existing in a finite number – will
repeat itself in an infinite number
of times.

After more than two thousand of

years, Nietzsche caught the idea
too. Still, he lost sight of the fact
that, in the meantime, science had
progressed.

175
176
 Contagion

Only diseases are transmissible,

not the healthiness.

Good deeds are not contagious

too.

If something have caught on you,

and it is not lipstick,
you must think.
Probably it is
dangerous.

177
 The amour

It is easy to fall in love.

More difficult is to confess it.

178
 Friends

Friends are like us;

after all, we selected them.

When you blame them,

be careful.

Look at the dog

barking at herself
in the front of a mirror.

179
 The Defects of Virtues

“Everyone has the defects

of his virtues.” (George
Sand)

Beware of great virtuous ones!

180
 Music and Speaking

Music is the language of

sentiments.
Speaking is the language of ration.

Programmatic music and poetic

speaking bring nearer the
sentiments to ration, but move
away the both from the essences.

181
 Wish

Be careful what you wish for.

It's possible to come true.

182
 Robotics

From Sumerian mythology, we

learn that the gods, bored with
working for satisfying daily needs,
thought to find a way to solve the
problem.

Then, Enki had a genial idea: from

clay and water, he made a being
destined to work instead of them.
Here is how robotics appeared.

Today, the robots think themselves

they are gods.

There is a risk in everything.

183
 Multi-theism

Having more gods and legends,

some of them contradictory, antic
people were ready to accept the
existence of more possibilities.
This is why they were more
receptive, more enlighten and
open minded.

184
 Cults

The moderns replaced

the antic cult of phallus with
that of the cannon.

Their ideograms are alike.

Both of them represent the power.

The difference is more a ethical

one:
the first is creative while
the second is destructive.

185
 Freedom

Every person is free to think

anything he wants, but he is not
allowed to do all what he thinks, if
his deeds could injure his fellows.

Well, what is freedom, then?

186
 Dragons

In fairy tales, the dragons have

more heads.

In real life, they have more tails.

187
 Conscience

I want to meet that pacifist

American, who abandon his job
and renounce of the wage,
because he realised that some
products of the plant in which he
work are used in an unjust war.

188
 Art

Art must be understood for

conveying something.

What would be a novel written in

an inexistent language, or a
theatre in which the actors stay
unmoved on the stage and utter
non-intelligible sounds?

189
 Dissertation

In some of most savant texts, the

author finishes his dissertations
with a proverb, in order to confirm
the accuracy of his logical
demonstration.

He loses sight of the fact that, in

this way, he proves that people's
wisdom used to know for ages
what he has just found out.

190
 Hope

Communism
deprived the riches of the wealth,
but could took
their spirit.

From the poor it took the all:

the hope

191
 Ache

The ache is only

a warning signal.

It says us that
something is not all right
and we ought to take
urgent
measures.
Without it,
we would be less
informed.

Suffering means a longer ache.

If it is one of the soul,

it means that we
should have treated it
long time ago.

But never is too late.

192
193
 Uter sensu

In stricto sensu, you see too

narrow.

In lato sensu, you don’t see too

wide,
but more confuse.

194
 Studies

There are persons without studies,

with some studies and
with higher studies.

There are not persons

with lower studies.

Not by a long chalk!

I played you a trick.
There are!

More that it:

there are lower persons
with higher studies.

195
 Writing and reading

When writing,
you are thinking to
the one who will read.

When reading,
you are not thinking to
the one who has
wrote,
but why he
wrote.

196
 Assessment

Only the persons upper than us

may assess us.

Not only because they own

the necessary quality,
but because they are the only
ones disposed to do it.

Of course, sometime,
Not always.

197
 Force

Did you notice that

powerful persons
have delicate
gestures?

The reciprocal statement

is true as well.

198
 Reducing Cure

Did you hear that

one can grow slim by
praying
between two abundant
meals.

199
 Philosophic writings

The philosophers relate,

in an arid way,
what everybody used
to
know long
before.

200
 The Past, as a Shadow

The past begins today.

The one beginning tomorrow

may be different,
as, inside it,
today enter
as well.

Be careful what you do

today!

The past will

follow you
in future
as a shadow

201
 Esteem

Between persons
esteeming each other,
a delicate gesture
is repaid by the others
with another delicate gesture.

In the lack of esteem,

such a gesture
is taken by the other
as an opportunity
to take advantage from.

202
 Occidental offer

They changed the offer.

If in the past they

used to export religion,
now, they offer
“man’s rights”.

Wars are what priests generated.

We do not know so far
what homosexuals
will generate.

203
 Acquired Intelligence

Rich person’s stupidity

is more evident.

Poor person has to struggle

for life. In this way,
he acquires some
abilities.

Unfortunately,
he loses them if enrich.

204
 The Limits of the Reason

Mathematics, most rational

among sciences, invented
irrational numbers.

It did not want, but succeeded in

demonstrating that
ration has limits.

205
 Partnership

Sometimes,
Usually after a long
suffering,
Good men join
together
In face of a
major
Danger.
The bad ones do it any time
an opportunity appears.
(In the lack of it, they will invent
one.)

And the communication between

them is different.

The first ones need lasting talks.

The second ones come to an

agreement at a glance.

206
207
 Flat Land / Mountain

People from flat lands, as they do

not have something to prop up
their view, deal with what the
proximity offer to them. Far away
is, for most of them, too away.

The mountain, for those living at

its foot, is either an
insurmountable. Obstacle, or a
temptation, for the most
courageous of them. The path
climbs or descends, according with
the direction of walking.

With the people is the same.

208
 Orient / Occident

Europe needs martyrs

Socrates and Jesus was the first
ones.

Buddha and Confucius died at old

ages.

209
 Simple things

Nobody troubles his head with

simple things.

That’s why they remain

unapprehended

210
 Golden Mean

The golden mean

doesn’t mean
a half of a measure

211
 Serpent

Symbol of cunning,
the serpent got
this renown
not because
he creeps
but because
he sinuates.

212
 Suspicion

Rarely. A man becomes suspicious

after someone deceived him, and
– if he does it – it occurs only face
to the deceiver.

Generally, naïve people remain

naïve.

The really suspicious is the one

used to deceive other people.
Thinking that the others are like
him, he wonder if he is not
deceived at his turn.

213
 Friend

Friend is the one who, if you injure

him with something, he wonder
what he was wrong with you and is
read to beg your pardon.

214
 Writing

For the beginning, man used to

think only for himself.
When he want to communicate
with the others, he invented
speaking.

In time, speaking influenced his

thinking.

Writing amplified his way of

thinking: sequential, rigorous. It is
not easy to run over letter, words
and phrases to learn what the
author wanted to say. Only those
well trained can do it.

Now, we are victims of this

method.

215
What about those writing in a
different way?

216
 Religion and Civilisation

Religion asks us to be warm-

hearted each other.

Civilisation asks us to esteem each

other.

217
 Eve

The eve of every holiday

is more important
than the holiday itself.

During the previous days,

people get close to the
sacrum,
think of it.

As soon as man starts celebrating,

he forget what he celebrate
for.

218
 Accidents

Statistics show that,

in Europe,
more accidents occurs
in Portugal
and much less
in Swede.

It is clear!
Snow is good for traffic.

219
 Children’s mistakes

Children do not repeat

the parents’ mistakes.

They do some different ones,

according with their
education
received from the
parents.

220
 Indiscretion

If God has put a curtain

between he and us,
in order to avoid
our indiscrete views.
we should respect his wish.

221
 Atheism

The first Christians

were considered to be
atheists,
because they
did not keep
the rituals
of that time.

222
 The exception

“The exception confirms the rule”,

because specifies
its field of validity.

223
 Traces
Do not look in sky for
the trace of flying bird.

224
 If you are not a statue, yet

If, from the sky,

something that only statues
support,
fell down on you,
be quiet.

Only in state of rest a bird chooses

the place.
On flying, was only a chance
you was in it way.

225
 We

Only when I say “We”

I feel myself really prideful.

226