Irish Philosophy
There are only two things to worry about - either you are well, or you are sick
If you are well then you have nothing to worry about
If you are sick there are two things to worry about - either you will get well, or you will die
If you get well then there is nothing to worry about
If you die there are two things to worry about - either you will go to heaven, or hell
If you go to heaven there is nothing to worry about
But if you go to hell you'll be so damn busy shaking hands with all your friends down there you won't have time to worry! |
| The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. (Martin Luther King Jr.) |
| It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. (J.K. Rowling) |
Don't worry about people from your past,
There's a reason why they didn't make it to your future. |
Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me, and be my friend. - Albert Camus |
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Don't criticize anyone till you walk a mile in their shoes so when you finally do criticize them...you're a mile away and have their shoes. |
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It's better to wake up alone knowing that you're alone, than waking up with someone and still be lonely. - Liv Ullmann
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| Say of him what you please, but I know my child's failings. I do not love him because he is good, but because he is my little child. How should you know how dear he can be when you try to weigh his merits against his faults? When I must punish him he becomes all the more a part of my being. When I cause his tears to come my heart weeps with him. I alone have a right to blame and punish, for he only may chastise who loves. - Rabindranath Tagore |
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If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. - Anne Bradstreet
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Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow. It only saps today of its strength. - A.J. Cronin
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Always be yourself because the people that mind don't matter and the people that matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss
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The happiest people don't have the best of everything but make the best of everything they have. - Marcus Aurelius
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When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come. - Leonardo da Vinci
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The most knowledgeable person in one domain may be the most ignorant in another. -Albert Camus
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That's what learning is, after all: not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it, and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning. - Richard Bach
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I consider myself a student of many religions. The more I learn, the more questions I have. - Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code. |
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Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day's work absorb your entire energies and satisfy your widest ambition. - William Osler |
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God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. |
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The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving. - Oliver Wendell Holmes |
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Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. — Mahatma Gandhi |
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Brilliant people talk about ideas. Average people talk about things. Small people talk about other people. |
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A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. No one is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and no one is so poor that he cannot give it. A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in business, and is the cornerstone of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and is nature's best antidote for trouble.
Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. When people are too tired to give you a smile,
give them one of yours.
No one needs a smile so much
as he who has none to give. - Author unknown |
| The next time you get the urge to shut somebody up because they don't see the world exactly the same way you do, take a deep breath, get out your Bill of Rights, and count to the ten amendments. - Dennis Miller |
| Making happiness and misery the same, making success and failure the same, fight thou on - Gita |
| Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet them on your way down. - Wilson Mizner |
| It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. - Chinese proverb |
| The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. - Harper Lee |
| The education of a person is never completed until he dies. - Robert E. Lee |
| To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. - E.E. Cummings |
| We can make mountains of molehills and molehills of mountains. Our thoughts can heal us and our thoughts can make us ill. |
| I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect. - Jackie Robinson |
| Motto: Hope for the best, but expect the worst. |
| If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way. |
| The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. - William James |
| A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad. - Arnold H. Glasow |
| A truly rich man is one whose children will run into his arms when his hands are empty. |
| Never judge another until you have walked two weeks in his shoes. |
| The person who is straightforward and honest doesn't have to worry about a faulty memory. |
| No one is better than another. We are all different. |
| In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends. - John Churton Collins |
| It's better to lose your ego to the one you love than to lose the one you love because of ego. - John Keats |
| I was grumbling because I had no shoes on my feet - and then I saw a man who had no feet. |
| The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude. - William James |
| The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it. |
| The truth is not always the same as the majority decision. - Pope John Paul II |
| Unless we dream the best dreams of which we are capable, the
future will be poorer than it might be. --Brian Stableford |
| Our greatest glory consists not in never falling but in rising each time we fall. (Can someone kindly tell me who said this? Some attributed it to Oliver Goldsmith, some to Ralph Waldo Emerson and others to Confucius. - PJG) |
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Note: This quotation, often attributed to Voltaire, actually came from Evelyn Beatrice Hall (writing under the pseudonym of S.G. Tallentyre) in her book "The Friends of Voltaire".
This was what she wrote: The men who had hated [the book], and had not particularly loved Helvetius, flocked round him now. Voltaire forgave him all injuries, intentional or unintentional. 'What a fuss about an omelette!' he had exclaimed when he heard of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute a man for such an airy trifle as that! 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,' was his attitude now.
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| We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them. - Cato the Elder |
| A boy doesn't have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around. - Edgar Watson Howe
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| What you think of yourself is much more important than what others think of you. - Seneca
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| My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others. That is nice but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success. - Helen Hayes |
| Great tranquillity of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame. - Thomas A. Kempis
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| Keep a good heart. That's the most important thing in life. It's not how much money you make or what you can acquire. The art of it is to keep a good heart. - Joni Mitchell |
| No one can be wrong all the time. Even a clock that has stopped running is right twice a day.
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| The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it. - Carl Jung |
| The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied. |
| Nothing matters to a man who says nothing matters. - Lin Yu-tang
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| I would like to be able to admire a person's opinions as I would their dog - without being expected to take it home with me. - Frank A. Clark |
| Fame is vapour, popularity an accident; Riches take wings; those who cheer today will curse tomorrow, only one thing endures, and that is character. - Horace Greely (1811-1872)
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| We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. - Anonymous.
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| The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. - Bertrand Russell |
| Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars. - Frederick Langbridge |
| I have learned that a man only has the right to look down on another man when it is to help him to stand up. - Gabriel Garcia Marquez |
Here is my secret. It is very simple: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly. The essence is invisible to the eye. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in The Little Prince
(In French): "Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." |
| The ultimate weakness of violence
is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate....
Returning violence for violence multiples violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. -
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. |
| Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own. - Chinese proverb |
A man must have limits and cannot give in to the wild desires to be everything and everyone and everything to everyone. - Saul Bellow (1915-2005)
My favourite quote. This statement actually comes from one of Bellow's books. Sorry I forgot to jot down the book title when I copied from it. - PJG |
| I set it down as a fact that if all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world. - Pascal
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| The biggest mistake you can make is to always be right. |
| When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you. - Lao-Tzu |
| When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. - Helen Keller
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| If you give a man a fish, he will have food for a day. If you show him how to fish, he will have food all his life. |
| People only see what they are prepared to see. - Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| In life we have to jostle and be jostled. We elbow our way through life, giving and receiving offence. |
| One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. - Bertrand Russell |
| Do unto others as you wish others do unto you. - Confucius |
| The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. - Dolly Parton |
| Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness. - Ibsen (1828-1906)
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| The two hardest things to handle in life are failure and success. |
| Life is mostly froth and bubble; Two things stand like stone: - Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in your own. - Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-70) |
| The happiest people don't have everything
- they make the most of everything they have! |
| It is not who is right, but what is right that is of importance.
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| Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are. - John Wooden |
| Worry is like a rocking chair - gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere.
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| Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses. - Chinese Proverb |
| When angry, count four; when very angry, swear. - Mark Twain (1835-1910)
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| I must respect the opinions of others even if I disagree with them. - Herbert Henry Lehman
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| When someone asks you how you are, and your reply is "Bad!", you are being selfish, for there are many that are much worse off than you. |
| Hanging on to resentment is letting someone
you despise live rent-free in your head. - Ann Landers
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The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not obtained by sudden flight
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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| I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day. - James Joyce |
| Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
- Dalai Lama |
| People want what they can't have, once they have it they don't want it anymore. |
| The only tyrant I accept in this world is
the still voice within. - Mahatma Gandhi |
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points
out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of
deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the
man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by
dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs
and comes up short again and again, because there is no
effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the
great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends
himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in
the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the
worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid
souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. - Teddy Roosevelt
(This speech, entitled "The Man in the Arena", was delivered by former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910.)
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Greed has poisoned men's souls. Has barricaded the world with hate. Has goose-stepped us with misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. - Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator"
(Video clip here.)
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Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass,
or glory in the flower, we will grieve not,
rather find strength in what remains behind. - William Wordsworth
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There are very few guarantees in life, yet one thing is certain -- if you never attempt anything, you'll never accomplish anything. We frequently are held back by fear of failure. And failure is always a possibility. It is a certainty, however, when you never try in the first place.
You become what you think about most. When you continually focus on the fear of failure, failure will become real for you. Look instead at the possibilities. Look at what could happen if only you would attempt it. Sure, it might not succeed completely. Yet even then you will learn something. - Ralph Marston
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The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee (thanks to Kelly Yolland for sharing)
When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24
hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups
of coffee.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items
in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very
large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf
balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The
professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students
again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the
jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if
the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "Yes."
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the
table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the
empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar
represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions - and if everything else was lost and only
they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your
house and your car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff. "If you
put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room
for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend
all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have
room for the things that are important to you.
"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your
spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the
house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first - the things
that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee
represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just
goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's
always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."
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When love beckons to you, follow him (From "The Prophet" by Khalil Gibran)
When love beckons to you, follow
him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when
his wings enfold you, yield to him, Though the sword
hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when
he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice
may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste
the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify
you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your
pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses
your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So
shall he descend to your roots and shake them in
their clinging to the earth.....
But if in your fear you would seek only love's
peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for
you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of
love's threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world
where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself and takes naught
but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it
be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love.....
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let
these be your desires: To melt and be like a running
brook that sings its melody to the night. To know
the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by
your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly
and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest
at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; To
return home at eventide with gratitude; And then
to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart
and a song of praise upon your lips.
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The Paradox of Our Age by Dr. Bob Moorehead (often wrongly attributed to George Carlin)
We have taller buildings but shorter tempers; wider freeways but narrower viewpoints; we spend more but have less; we buy more but enjoy it less; we have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, yet less time; we have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgement; more experts, yet more problems; we have more gadgets but less satisfaction; more medicine, yet less wellness; we take more vitamins but see fewer results. We drink too much; smoke too much; spend too recklessly; laugh too little; drive too fast; get too angry quickly; stay up too late; get up too tired; read too seldom; watch TV too much and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values; we fly in faster planes to arrive there quicker, to do less and return sooner; we sign more contracts only to realize fewer profits; we talk too much; love too seldom and lie too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've done larger things, but not better things; we've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice; we write more, but learn less; plan more, but accomplish less; we make faster planes, but longer lines; we learned to rush, but not to wait; we have more weapons, but less peace; higher incomes, but lower morals; more parties, but less fun; more food, but less appeasement; more acquaintances, but fewer friends; more effort, but less success. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; drive smaller cars that have bigger problems; build larger factories that produce less. We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, but short character; steep in profits, but shallow relationships. These are times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure and less fun; higher postage, but slower mail; more kinds of food, but less nutrition. These are days of two incomes, but more divorces; these are times of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, cartridge living, throw-away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies and pills that do everything from cheer, to prevent, quiet or kill. It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stock room. Indeed, these are the times!
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LET IT GO by T.D.Jakes
When people can walk away from you, let them walk.
I don't want you to try to talk another person
into staying with you, loving you, calling you,
caring about you, coming to see you...
Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left...
People leave you because they are not joined to you.
And if they are not joined to you, you can't make
them stay. Let them go.
And it doesn't mean that they are bad,
it just means that their part in the story is over...
You've got to know when it's over...
Stop begging people to stay. Let them go!!...
If someone can't treat you right, love you back,
and see your worth let it go!!!
If someone has angered you let it go!!!...
If you keep judging others to make yourself
feel better let it go!!!...
Get Right or Get Left...think about it, and then let it go!!!
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I have a dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (needs Real Player)
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream...(edited)...that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
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Invictus (Unconquerable) by William Ernest Henley
(This poem was a great source of inspiration to Nelson Mandela when he was imprisoned on Robben Island.)
Read by Walter Rufus Eagles (needs Real Player)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
(Note: Henley suffered from tuberculosis of the bone when he was 12. His diseased foot had
to be amputated. Worse still his physicians announced that his other foot also had to be amputated in order to save his life. Henley fought
this with all his spirit. He was discharged from hospital with his foot and his life and was
able to lead an active life for nearly 30 years despite his handicap. His disease killed him at 54. This poem was written from a
hospital bed.) |
IF by Rudyard Kipling
Read by Walter Rufus Eagles (needs Real Player)
If you can keep your head when all about you,
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken,
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute,
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
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Desiderata by Max Erhmann (1872-1945) (needs Real Player)
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there
may be in silence
As far as possible without surrender, Be on good
terms with all persons
Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and
listen to others - Even the dull and ignorant,
they too have their
story
Avoid loud and aggressive persons - they are vexations to
the spirit
If you compare yourself with others, you may become
vain and bitter,
For always there will be greater and lesser
persons than yourself
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans
Keep interested in your own career - However humble,
It is a
real possession in the changing fortunes of time
Exercise caution
in your business affairs, For the world is full of trickery
But
let this not blind you to what virtue there is
Many persons strive
for high ideals, And everywhere life is full of heroism
Be
yourself
Especially do not feign affection, neither be cynical
about love
For in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, It
is as perennial as the grass
Take kindly the council of the years,
Gracefully surrendering the things of youth
Nurture strength of
spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune, But do not distress
yourself with imaginings
Many fears are born of fatigue and
loneliness
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself
You are a child of the universe
No less than the trees and the
stars, You have a right to be here
And whether or not it is clear
to you, No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should
Therefore,
be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be
And whatever
your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, Keep
peace with your soul
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken
dreams, it is still a beautiful world
Be careful
Strive to be
happy.
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The Blind Men and the Elephant by John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)
(Note: Each of the six blind men below is convinced he is perfectly right because he hasn't got access to the whole elephant but only a part of it.)
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
I see, quoth he, the Elephant
Is very like a snake!
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain, quoth he;
'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: Even the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!?
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
I see, quoth he, the Elephant
Is very like a rope!
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
Moral:
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
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Citations en français.
"Se despide un Genio"