Are oracles always telling the truth? — I don’t know, but Aapo Puskala‘s On-line Oracle does tell the truth as one of my recent conversations reveal:
Me: Dear Oracle, are you lying sometimes?
Oracle: Usually I’m not, but right now I surely am.
rattus rattus is not getting tired of adding to his life (and blog) this most serious statement:
Parody! Not to be taken seriously!
ik (anyway wittily) asked:
Is it a parody that you are not to be taken seriously or are you a parody which is not to be taken seriously or….? :))
After all, the parody is parody. — Not just trivially, also seriously.
Of course, the phrase is part of the parody — and as such — it is seriously not to be taken seriously either.
Serious as in law suit or getting shot. As the man, who signed many of his illustrations with this very phrase, knew so well.
What’s really wrong with most people is hey take life too seriously.
— Larry Flynt
If this is part of your life (don’t) take it too seriously. Or be wrong.
[Ratta says: If you think it is time to move on, please do!]
I am not into telling the future (please note the nicely hidden self-contradictory aspect of this statement; thanks) but this blog ain’t dead.
Yet. ;-)
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).
