Deep Thoughts for the Day

“The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading, but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.” –Pablo Neruda

 "Terror is as much a part of the concept of truth as runniness is of the concept of jam. We wouldn’t like jam if it didn’t, by its very nature, ooze. We wouldn’t like truth if it wasn’t sticky, if, from time to time, it didn’t ooze blood." — Jean Baudrillard

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Deep Thoughts from Andre Malraux

"And when man faces destiny, destiny ends and man comes into his own."

"The most important thing in life is to see that you are never beaten."
"The basic problem is that our civilization, which is a civilization of machines, can teach man everything except how to be a man."
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Deep Thought from Carl Sagan

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity — in all this vastness — there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

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A Poem by Pablo Neruda for Summer Days

What I want should not be confused with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about…..

If we were not so single minded about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us,
as when everything seems dead in winter and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

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