rattus rattus’ blog

63

Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.

The Master never reaches for the great;
thus she achieves greatness.
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn’t cling to her own comfort;
thus problems are no problem for her.

— Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Translation by Stephen Mitchell.

Translations of the Tao Te Ching are widely debated, see the Wikipedia’s article. The Xenophon Library offers line by line comparisons of several translations, including chapter 63. The title of this entry is taken from Lin Yutang’s translation.

Ich glaube, daß Ideen wie absolute Richtigkeit, absolute Genauigkeit, endgültige Wahrheit usw. Hirngespinste sind, die in keiner Wissenschaft zugelassen werden sollten.
— Max Born (German physicist, 1882-1970)

This is a wonderful quote. And, considering how often it can be applied it is an important one, too. Here is my humble attempt of a translation:

I believe that ideas of absolute correctness, absolute precision, ultimate truth etc. are figments of imagination which should not be tolerated in science.
— Max Born (English translation by author)

I tried to track down this quote. The best reference I found on-line is from page 57 of Sattler M: Das Sokratische Gespräch (2003):

Heckmann beruft sich bei seiner Auffassung über die Wahrheit an dieser Stelle u. a. auf eine Überlegung von Max Born, in der es heißt: “Ich glaube, daß Ideen wie absolute Richtigkeit, absolute Genauigkeit, endgültige Wahrheit usw. Hirngespinste sind, die in keiner Wissenschaft zugelassen werden sollten. (…) Diese Lockerung des Denkens scheint mir als der größte Segen, den die heutige Wissenschaft uns gebracht hat. Ist doch der Glaube an eine einzige Wahrheit und deren Besitzer zu sein, die tiefste Wurzel allen Übels auf der Welt” (Born 1965 zit. nach Heckmann 1993, S. 88).

“Born 1965” probably means Born M: Von der Verantwortung des Naturwissenschaftlers (1965).

How do you show that you love telling fake stories?

What is good sex? Using lube? Long foreplay? Candle light (pre-lit and auto-off)? Hairy or shaved? In public places?
For some people good sex means not to be asked.

But this is a lie.

The wise man doesn’t give the right answers — he poses the right questions.
— Claude Lévi-Strauss

Never make this an answer.
Unless you are a liar :-)

A friend of mine recently said to me that I must not use the word “love” if I know that for my (listening) significant others the word has a different meaning.

[Ratta utters: Whatever I say is a lie. So, what do you want me to say?]

Me:

So many questions. When will I get answers?

She:

Later.

Me:

Oh, you my sweet little liar!