Concluí, como se conclui sempre em Filosofia, que me encontrava diante duma Causa Primaria, portanto impenetrável.
"José Matias" (1897), collected in Contos (1902); translation by Luís Marques from The Yellow Sofa & Three Portraits (1993) p. 152.
Felipe González
@Reader1994, member from July 21, 2022
Academic.
Literature.
Books.
Movies.
Bertrand Russell
(1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Often paraphrased as "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
Compare: "One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision." B. Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World (1951). Compare also: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming (1919).
See also: Dunning-Kruger effect, Historical Antecedents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect#Historical_antecedents.
1930s, Mortals and Others (1931-35)
“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
Bertrand Russell
(1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
"A Liberal Decalogue" http://www.panarchy.org/russell/decalogue.1951.html, from "The Best Answer to Fanaticism: Liberalism", New York Times Magazine (16/December/1951); later printed in The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1969), vol. 3: 1944-1967, pp. 71-2
1950s
Context: The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.”
Bertrand Russell
(1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Source: 1940s, A History of Western Philosophy (1945)
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.”
Mark Twain
(1835–1910) American author and humorist
“If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.”
Notebook entry, January or February 1894, Mark Twain's Notebook, ed. Albert Bigelow Paine (1935), p. 240 http://books.google.com/books?id=DjBVlb7cBSIC&pg=PA240
Variant: If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory!
Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Lord Darlington, Act III
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Context: With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
“And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.”
Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream
“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.”
Source: Much Ado About Nothing
“Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. then your love would also change.”
Source: Romeo and Juliet
Joanne K. Rowling
(1965) British novelist, author of the Harry Potter series
from Pansy Hermiones, 2006
2010s
Robin Williams
(1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian
Robin Williams: Live on Broadway (2002)
“In order to write about life first you must live it.”
Ernest Hemingway
(1899–1961) American author and journalist
George Raymond Richard Martin
(1948) American writer, screenwriter and television producer
Audio Interview http://www.geekson.com/archives/archiveepisodes/2006/episode080406.htm with Geekson http://www.geekson.com in Episode 54, (4 August 2006)
“Parry is a man with a previous life that was so damaged that he had to create another personality.”
Robin Williams
(1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian
On his role in The Fisher King (1991), as quoted in "Dreams: The Fisher King" (2006) edited by Phil Stubbs http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/fkprod1.htm
Context: Parry is a man with a previous life that was so damaged that he had to create another personality. … It's like post-traumatic stress syndrome: Some people respond to traumatic or tragic events by withdrawal; some even create other personalities. Parry is a creation — somewhat Don Quixote, somewhat Groucho Marx — but he's a creation designed to avoid a past event.