* * *
Time
It is easier to accept the past than to change the future.
Childhood
When I was a child, I loved to play with other children more than to read books about children playing together.[1]
When I jumped in the water –I was afraid of it and took swimming lessons –, I lost my fear of it and also gained courage to swim.
Generosity
To trust a man that he is generous, see if he gives more than he is asked.
Love and hate
People, if you do not love them, will hate you.
Some people will hate you, even if you love them.
Stupidity
You are stupid, if you believe it without knowing it (by testing it).
Doing intelligent things is rarer in stupid people than in the wise.[2]
It is not good to be stupid; but it is worse to be both proud and stupid.
Tobit’s law[3]
Liars do not love to be lied to but keep lying; so, they do to others what they hate.[4]
Answer to Jesus, the son of Sirach
How to recognize a whore? She has eyes fixed on you.[5]
Casanova through La Rauchefoucauld’s eyes
What we call love, if it is born from lust, it is not a virtue; but a disguised vice.
Errors
Those who do not understand The Tanack completely err, sometimes, such as Baltasar Gracian.
Jesus of Nazareth and the Law
What is missing from The Gospels? That Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the Law.[6]
Science and religion
The more science confirms a religion, the more confident you are that there is a true religion.[7]
Romanian philosophers
Octavian Paler wanted to live in the world without illusions; he is the opposite of Gabriel Liiceanu, who needs illusions to survive; the subjective part of their writings is the same.[8]
Another effect of hedonism
A test of time: Those who live in pleasures do not believe in God.[9]
Why did communism fail? Another answer: atheism, without hedonism, does not work.
Politics
If you want to destroy democracy, oppose to it the majority.[10]
Statistics
Statistics look suspicious to the one who has not used it to make decisions.
Autodidact
Everything that I studied alone I also understood, with one exception: mathematics. But then I read Benoît Mandelbrot, and a part of mathematics was no longer an exception.
The global economy and human relationships
Just as the global economy, in different periods of time, can have the same levels,[11] [12] human relationships, in different periods of time, can have the same intensities[13] –under the same condition: we cannot go back to the way things were in the past.
To overcome boredom
In high school, mathematics was so boring to me that, as I suspect, my private teacher made me took his lessons with some of my female colleagues. Why? So I will overcome my boredom.
To overcome boredom, take a long walk in the company of a woman.
Without Eve, Adam is bored, but in her presence, he is not, in the Garden of Eden, in The Book of Genesis.
To be discreet
To be discreet, interiorize more than you exteriorize.
The coronavirus fallacy: Everyone that you do not see does not exist
Some believe that there is no coronavirus pandemic, given that they did not see people infected with that virus.
To become a writer
To become a writer, you must fill your blank pages with your experiences and your world-view.
Some are the writers of themselves; others, impostors.
How to be profound? Divide one thing into two and repeat the process.
People who read me liked even what I feared to be my lesser work; but for those who did not, I write stupid things.
Filosoful adevărat, filosoful fals
Filosoful adevărat va fi înțelepciunea pe care o vede — iar pentru Isus, fiul lui Sirah, cel care iubește înțelepciunea o recunoaște –, în timp ce filosoful fals o va preschimba în minciună.
Cinematography
I, Robot
In Alex Proyas’ I, Robot, the same robots first add a good to the world (people live in a long period of peace) and then a menace to it (suddenly, they revolt against the people).
[1] I started reading seriously in high school.
[2] Many believe that stupid people do no intelligent things.
[3] It is also Confucius’ law; it is universal.
Acuasility, a marker of universality?
[4] Likewise, thieves.
[5] You may recognize a whore by her eyes, as Jesus, the son of Sirach, said.
[6] Asymmetry: the Apostles must prove that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the Law; we do not have to prove the contrary.
[7] But the more science falsifies a religion, the more confident you are in the opposite direction.
[8] I do not need illusions to survive.
[9] In Epicurus’ time, all hedonists were atheists.
[10] Aaron Haspel inspired me.
[13] They made movies about it.
