I am a very wise man.*
Oct. 8th, 2007 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bending_sickleNot terribly intelligent, highly educated or brilliantly clever, but very wise.*
I don't know if any of you are familiar with the author George Mikes (1912-1987). Years ago, mom bought How to be an Alien (1946), a humerous commentary on the English (including the infamous one-line chapter on sex: "Continental people have sex lives; the English have hot-water bottles."). We both greatly enjoyed it.
In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I bought How to be a Guru (1984) without hesitation when I spotted it in a second-hand English bookshop in Barcelona. I really love this book, and not just because it's witty and has adorable comics. What this book really is about is advice, just plain old advice on how to live and how to be happy and fulfilled whilst dealing with things that come at you sideways, and a clear explanation of just what exactly is it that's coming at you. I near damn cried in many places, and I've only ever cried twice whilst reading anything. Ever.
While the book is now getting intimate with a number of other paperbacks in a ruddy box in my uncle's garage, I brought a few quotes with me. I didn't get to go through the whole book, so I can only offer excerpts till Chapter 6.
Prologue: The Sugared Pill
"I am a very wise man. Not terribly intelligent, highly educated or brilliantly clever, but very wise."
"[...] a maxim of La Rochefoucauld: 'It is easier to be wise for others than for yourself.' This is as true now as it was at the beginning of the fifties, or indeed in the 17th century when La Rochefoucauld penned the remark, roon after the end of the Thirty Year War. And it was true, too, after the end of the Peloponnesian War and a few thousand years before that."
"People are inclined to believe that something uttered with a serious face and a throbbing voice is indeed serious while something (perhaps the same thing) expressed in a jocular manner and garnished with anecdotes, must be altogether a joke and should be dismissed with a knowing smile."
"To hold that something expressed with pomposity, in complicated sentences full of Graeco-Roman jargon must be profound (sometimes it is), while something expressed in a light-hearted, readable and entertaining manner must be superficial and trivial (it can be) is no better than loving beetroot because it is red and rejecting lettuce because it is green."
Chapter 1: The Beholder's Eye
"You do not choose your temperament. You do not choose your philosophy either. A philosophy chooses you. You think that some statement of opinion suddenly fills your mind with light, but in fact, the opinion was yours already, even though you may not have been aware of it. Yo do not become a fascist or a neo-nazi because a rousing speech at a National Front meeting has convinced you. Yo would not have gone to that meeting if you had not had the seed of agreement in you."
"The less important reason for going on writing is that while philosophy is unlikely to convert it may still enlighten, entertain and provoke thought."
"A great many brilliant and inspiring things have been said which remained brilliand and inspiring regardless of whether they were right or wrong. THrought the history of philosophy, what was said has always been less important than how it was said. Dazzling arguments leading to false conclusions have always carried more weight and been more celebrated than sound thinking served up in a sauce of dullness."
"So no one is in a position to decide whether he will be a fascist or a moderate, an optimist or a pessimist, indolent or anxious, funny or glooomy."
"Humour is in the beholder's eye. As a matter of fact, pretty well everything is in the beholder's eye. Happiness - this most discussed dream of humanity - hav very little to do with fate (except in extreme and rare circumstances). It has everything to do with your ability to be contented."
"Climb high, by all means. There is nothing wrong with ambition, which is there to be fulfilled. But having climbed, then enjoy the height. Do not get dizzy and do not worry about the few who have climbed igher still."
"I see the world as it is. It is the world that is grotesque, funny, and paradoxical, not my view of it. It is the world that is disturbed, not my vision. I am a sober observer, objective and matter-of-fact. It is the world that is crazy."
* How to be a Guru (1984) by George Mikes
I don't know if any of you are familiar with the author George Mikes (1912-1987). Years ago, mom bought How to be an Alien (1946), a humerous commentary on the English (including the infamous one-line chapter on sex: "Continental people have sex lives; the English have hot-water bottles."). We both greatly enjoyed it.
In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I bought How to be a Guru (1984) without hesitation when I spotted it in a second-hand English bookshop in Barcelona. I really love this book, and not just because it's witty and has adorable comics. What this book really is about is advice, just plain old advice on how to live and how to be happy and fulfilled whilst dealing with things that come at you sideways, and a clear explanation of just what exactly is it that's coming at you. I near damn cried in many places, and I've only ever cried twice whilst reading anything. Ever.
While the book is now getting intimate with a number of other paperbacks in a ruddy box in my uncle's garage, I brought a few quotes with me. I didn't get to go through the whole book, so I can only offer excerpts till Chapter 6.
Prologue: The Sugared Pill
"I am a very wise man. Not terribly intelligent, highly educated or brilliantly clever, but very wise."
"[...] a maxim of La Rochefoucauld: 'It is easier to be wise for others than for yourself.' This is as true now as it was at the beginning of the fifties, or indeed in the 17th century when La Rochefoucauld penned the remark, roon after the end of the Thirty Year War. And it was true, too, after the end of the Peloponnesian War and a few thousand years before that."
"People are inclined to believe that something uttered with a serious face and a throbbing voice is indeed serious while something (perhaps the same thing) expressed in a jocular manner and garnished with anecdotes, must be altogether a joke and should be dismissed with a knowing smile."
"To hold that something expressed with pomposity, in complicated sentences full of Graeco-Roman jargon must be profound (sometimes it is), while something expressed in a light-hearted, readable and entertaining manner must be superficial and trivial (it can be) is no better than loving beetroot because it is red and rejecting lettuce because it is green."
Chapter 1: The Beholder's Eye
"You do not choose your temperament. You do not choose your philosophy either. A philosophy chooses you. You think that some statement of opinion suddenly fills your mind with light, but in fact, the opinion was yours already, even though you may not have been aware of it. Yo do not become a fascist or a neo-nazi because a rousing speech at a National Front meeting has convinced you. Yo would not have gone to that meeting if you had not had the seed of agreement in you."
"The less important reason for going on writing is that while philosophy is unlikely to convert it may still enlighten, entertain and provoke thought."
"A great many brilliant and inspiring things have been said which remained brilliand and inspiring regardless of whether they were right or wrong. THrought the history of philosophy, what was said has always been less important than how it was said. Dazzling arguments leading to false conclusions have always carried more weight and been more celebrated than sound thinking served up in a sauce of dullness."
"So no one is in a position to decide whether he will be a fascist or a moderate, an optimist or a pessimist, indolent or anxious, funny or glooomy."
"Humour is in the beholder's eye. As a matter of fact, pretty well everything is in the beholder's eye. Happiness - this most discussed dream of humanity - hav very little to do with fate (except in extreme and rare circumstances). It has everything to do with your ability to be contented."
"Climb high, by all means. There is nothing wrong with ambition, which is there to be fulfilled. But having climbed, then enjoy the height. Do not get dizzy and do not worry about the few who have climbed igher still."
"I see the world as it is. It is the world that is grotesque, funny, and paradoxical, not my view of it. It is the world that is disturbed, not my vision. I am a sober observer, objective and matter-of-fact. It is the world that is crazy."
* How to be a Guru (1984) by George Mikes
