Sunday 28 September 2008

Wise Words

After a week of getting bogged down with a huge variety of reports on US and UK remedies for the catastrophic global financial situation - and feeling no nearer to understanding it - I turned to my journal where over many years I've recorded scraps of wisdom from different writers.

Jenni Diski hit me first. Her description of certain tabloid newspapers reflected my feelings on the topic as well as when watching the news...."a kind of despair that grows like creeping paralysis over the will".

And then, on the same page, some uplifting words on a common theme:

Albert Camus "The evil that is in the world almost always comes from ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding"

Marie Curie Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.

Anton Checkhov Man will become better when you show him what he is like.

So, it's back to the drawing board if I'm to get out of this "creeping paralysis"....read, discuss and debate and try and reach a better understanding.

I wonder if other people have "wise words" to comfort themselves when their energy is low.

Here is a lovely Sanskrit poem I've visited frequently over the last 15 years.....

Look to this day, for it is life;
The very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the truths and realities of existence -
The joy of growth;
The splendour of action;
The glory of power.

For yesterday is but a memory
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived, makes every yesterday a memory of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day.

3 comments:

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Lovely, comforting and true words.
I have linked your new blogspot.
I hope it is alright with you.

Quant'e bella giovinezza che si fugge tuta via, chi vuol esser lieto sia, Di domani non c'e certezza. (Lorenzo di Medici)
I have translated it as well as I could:
Youth is beautiful and yet it flies away, who wishes to be happy, let them be happy now, for tomorrow nothing is sure.`

LadyLuz said...

Thank you Titania for adding to my store of wise words. I am rolling the Italian version around on my tongue.

Anonymous said...

I've carried these words around on a scrap of paper in my purse for years and years - and now they're permanently on my blog. They're not exactly comforting but they do remind me of the uniqueness of every single human being and and the potential that that uniqueness offers each of us, in terms of our creativity. As a writer, I find them truly inspiring.

'We are the carriers of lives and legends - who knows the unseen frescoes on the private walls of the skull?' The House of Breath, William Goyen, 1975