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Wisdom of the Great

Quotes from books by Isaac Asimov

By | Wisdom of the Great

Quotes from books by Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov (Isaac Asimov, born Isaak Yudovich Ozimov; January 2, 1920, Petrovichi, Shumyachsky district, Smolensk region, Russian SFSR, – April 6, 1992, New York, U.S.) was an American science-fiction writer popularizer of science, a biochemist.

Author of about 500 books, mainly fiction (primarily in the science fiction genre, but also in other genres: fantasy, detective, humor), and popular-scientific (in a variety of fields – from astronomy and genetics to the history and literature studies).

Probably, it is difficult to find someone who has read all the books by Isaac Asimov, so we offer you the most memorable quotes from his best works:

…there is no way around from uncertainty principle. A mistake is always possible, moreover, even imminent.
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“Take a Match”

… life is a chain of losses. You lose the youth, parents, favorites, friends, pleasures, health, and finally, life itself. You may not accept this – and still going to lose.
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“Nemesis”

Fear is necessary, it makes you careful and keeps you alive.
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“Fantastic Voyage II”

It is easy to be generous at the expense of others.
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“Fantastic Voyage II”

…the dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs has pushed mankind to create civilization and culture. Life satisfaction leads to stagnation and degradation…
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“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”

…golden glow of money contributes to a luxury honeymoon, but when we have to think about life seriously, money is not enough.
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“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”

There is not a greater pleasure all over the world to feel the pain receded.
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“The Last Answer”

Simple commandments of Janusz Korczak

By | Wisdom of the Great

Simple commandments of Janusz Korczak Janusz Korczak (Janusz Korczak; autonym – Hersh Henryk Goldszmit; 22 July 1878 –, Warsaw — 6 August 1942, Treblinka).

Poland gave to the world Janusz Korczak – the talented educator, writer and medical doctor.
This man lived in accordance with his pedagogical principles and died without breaking them although the fate gave him three times a chance for salvation.

First, Korczak did not leave the territory of Poland on the eve of the country’s occupation by Nazi troops, unwilling to turn adrift the inmates of the “House of orphans.” In 1940 Korczak with the children of foster home was caught in a ghetto at Warsaw. Then fans of Korczak’s talent wanted to arrange his escape, but he rejected such proposals. The third time, fate gave him a chance at salvation before sending the train to the extermination camp. When the train was ready to depart a Nazi officer entered to the train. He approached to Korczak and asked:
— Are you Janusz Korczak? In my childhood I liked to read your book – King Matt the First. The train may go without you.
— What will become of the children?
—They will be taken to the camp. And you are free. You may get out of the car.
—No, I will not do it. Do not look on all the people as scoundrels.

A few days later the educator was killed in Treblinka together with all the children of the foster home. He passed his final journey to the gas chambers holding by the ears two smallest inmates. Korczak told them stories in order that kids do not have time to be frightened.

You may read the pedagogical writings of Korczak, in order to get yourself familiar with his views on childrearing. But you also may simply follow his simple 10 commandments:

1. Do not expect your child to fulfill your ambitions. Help him to become what he is, not what you are.

2. Do not expect your child to return everything you invested in him. You gave him his life, how he can repay you? He will give life to another, the third, and this is an irreversible act of gratitude.

3. Do not vent your resentments on the child in order to avoid disappointment later on in life. For what you sow, so shall rise.

4. Do not look down on your child’s problems. Everything in life is given according to what one can handle. Be sure, child’s life is just as challenging, it might be even more challenging than yours, since he does not have an experience.

5. Do not disgrace!

6. Do not forget that the most important encounters in life – are encounters with children. Pay more attention to them – we can never know whom we encounter in the face of the child.

7. Do not beat yourself up, if you cannot do something for your child. Simply remember, it never done enough until everything possible has been done.

8. The child – this is not a tyrant, who takes over your life. He is not only your flesh and your blood. He is a precious Holy Grail given to you by Life so you could light up their creative fire. The child is a liberated love by mother and father who will not grow “our” or “their” kid, but they will grow a soul given to them to care for.

9. Learn to love someone else’s child. Never do to someone else’ child what you would not do to yours.

10. Love your child no matter what they are – not talented, unsuccessful, or an adult. When communicating with him – rejoice, because the child – is a celebration that is still with you.

Advice of “Wise Elder” Laozi

By | Wisdom of the Great

Advice of “Wise Elder” Laozi Laozi (Laozi, Old Child, Wise Elder) is a legendary philosopher-thinker who lived in the VI-Vth centuries B.C.E. He is considered to be the author of the Tao–te Ching (The Book of the Way and Its Virtue) – classic Taoist philosophical treatise, the founder of religious and philosophical Taoism, though today many scientists are skeptical about his historicity.

Laozi was a contemporary of Confucius and his opponent, and a very significant wise man of the Chinese culture as well. Although the historicity of Laozi is doubtful, the respect of Taoist schools for him cannot be overestimated.

Laozi’s sayings popular with Taoist schoolers:

About truth: “He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know”.

About knowledge: “No knowledge; that’s why I do not know anything”.

About abstinence: “This is the first stage of virtue which is the beginning of moral perfection”.

About life: “The man has been dying since the birth”.

About power: “The soft and the weak overcome the hard and the strong”.

About ambition: “If you measure your success by someone’s praises and censures, your anxiety will be endless”.

About war: “When you have no enemies there is no war”.

About good and evil: “When they all know the good as good, there arises the recognition of evil”.

About chattiness: “He who speaks a lot often fails”.

About life: “It is short, that’s why you should not waste your time, you should enjoy it”.

Nick Vujicic: “Always find the strength to rise”

By | Wisdom of the Great

Nick Vujicic: "Always find the strength to rise" A unique man Nick Vujicic, who was born without arms and legs, became the inspiration for hundreds of thousands of people around the world . He enraptures with his fortitude, faith and endless love for life. And makes you wonder why we, quite healthy people , do not notice the simple everyday pleasures that make up the concept of “happiness”.

Nick Vujicic learned how to be happy for a long time and he succeeded. Now he shares his secrets in his book “Life Without Limits“.

Here are some quotes of this remarkable man, which call for courage, give hope and fill us with self-confidence:

1. If you don’t have a friend, be a friend. If you don’t have hope, give hope to others
2. If no one opens, knock on several doors.
3. We all can find something bad or imperfect in each other. But I prefer to look for grains of gold.
4. Act in the way so that your own actions inspire and empower you.
6. You have to understand that sometimes it is impossible to receive the answer right away.
7. When you are not ready to accept yourself, it means you are even less ready to accept other people.
8. There are many problems in the world that haven’t affected me. I am sure that my life is a thousand times easier than the lives of many people.
9. I learned very early that asking for help is possible and necessary. No matter whether your body is ordinary or not, there are things that you cannot overcome alone.
11. Love does not care about what you can or cannot do, who you are and who you cannot be. True love looks straight into your heart!
12. When faced with any difficulty, find pure joy in it.
13. Consider the attitude to the world to be a remote control. If you do not like the program you are watching, you just grab the remote and switch the TV to another program. So it is with the attitude towards life: when you aren’t satisfied with the results, change the approach, regardless of what problem you are facing.
14. Those who consider themselves to be a loser are the people who do not understand how close to success they were when they gave up.
15. The perfect appearance does not mean anything if the soul is broken.
17. One of the greatest joys of life is to be a part of something larger than your own life and personal experiences.
18. In a stressful situation, feeling the impossibility to gather strength, it is important to separate what happened to you from what is going on inside you.
19. Life can be good if we choose it to be.
20. Another day – another opportunity!

Based on site http://www.mirpozitiva.ru/topics/301_silnye_citaty_nika_vujchicha.html

Remembering Lermontov

By | Wisdom of the Great

Remembering Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814-1841) – a Russian poet, romantic writer, playwright and painter. A genius you cannot imagine Russian literature without. Though he lived a very short life, not only he created great masterpieces, but openly declared his civic stance.

Today we want to remember one of his winged phrases so we could stop, take thought and learn how to be grateful just for a moment.

‘A man often complains about his life, which, he says, it is not as good and successful as other people may have. And when he looks at other people who are more happy and successful he envies them and cries: ‘Why do I have such a hard life!?’. But this understanding is not correct, because everyone has a life he needs for his soul benefit. Not the worst things happen to a man as he sometimes thinks but the best of what could happen. Therefore, first of all, a man should look around and see how happy he is, how many blessings God gave him. The ability to thank God for all you have and what is more important do not blindly thank him, but truly realize that you actually live a blessed life, which is a base of man’s spiritual life. After all, if a man does not appreciate all the good things he has and even asks for more, why would God give him more if a man has not yet come into the inheritance he already has and which was already given?’.

M.Y. Lermontov

Thomas Alva Edison- The Light in My Window

By | Wisdom of the Great

Thomas Alva Edison- The Light in My Window There was no more inventive person than Thomas Edison(1847-1931) in the American history. In general he is the author of more than 1000 patented inventions in the USA and about 3000 inventions in other countries. But before achieving such eminent result Thomas, according to his own sincere statements, has carried out tens of thousands unsuccessful experiments. During his life Edison improved telegraph, telephone, invented microphone, and phonograph; and what the most important Thomas illuminated America and then the whole world by his light bulb.

From the tender age he was very independent. When there appeared the necessity in money he carried on trade, he sold candies, newspapers, fruits. Then he managed the group of boys, who sold and shared their income with him.

In 1878 Thomas Edison started commercial introduction of light bulb, which brought him the great publicity. Light bulb was not his invention (here the priority belonged to Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin and Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov), he became the creator of such type of lamp and such electrical distribution system, which can jointly work in economic run. Edison’s lighting system could compete with gaslight of those days. For the expansion of practical application of electricity it was equally important than the invention of a lamp. In 1873 Edison, after thousand of experiments, invented a lamp with carbon filament, which burned 40 hours. He constructed direct-current generators, power transmission lines, electric networks and then three-wire system.

In 1882 Edison opened his first central electric station in New York. It was the beginning of the lighting industry in America.

Thomas Edison’s sayings

Most of people believe that one day they wake up being wealthy. By half they are right. Someday they do wake up.

Belief – is comforting rattle for those who can not think.

Our great disadvantage is that we lose heart quickly. The right way to the success – always try once again.

Most of people are ready to work immensely, so that to get rid of the necessity to think.

A great number of people lose courage not even suspecting how closely they were to the success, when they lost courage.

Anxiety and dissatisfaction are the essential conditions for further progress.

George Bernard Shaw Quotes

By | Wisdom of the Great

George Bernard Shaw Quotes George Bernard Shaw was the only person who was awarded both the Nobel prize and Oscar. He is the most renowned and distinguished critic of his days and dramaturge who wrote in the English language after Shakespeare.

His subtle quotations show the profound world view:
1. My way of joking is to tell the truth
2. Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.
3. The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.
4. He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
5. Aging boring, but this is the only way to live a long time.
6. If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
7. Man – like a brick: roasting, it hardens.
8. The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.
9. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

Sage alphabet of Helvétius

By | Wisdom of the Great

Sage alphabet of Helvétius Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771) was a French writer and philosopher, one of the ideologues of the age of Enlightenment. The main its task Helvétius saw to convince legislators that genius, virtue and talents are the result of education, which depends on the laws and forms of Government.

A courage reaps only those laurels, which grow in the midst of the disaster.

A person who is not familiar with the horsemanship, does not set about directing how to break the horses. But in the morality we are less distrustful. Here we always consider ourselves to be knowledgeable and able to give advice to all people.

All shallow people aspire constantly to blemish the people a thorough and broad mind.

But there is no mind without ideas.

Desire is the driving force of the soul; the soul devoid of desires stagnates. It is necessary to be willing to act, and to act to be happy.

Epicurus said: if you want to be rich, do not think about increasing your property, but only reduce your greed.

Forms of government have not created for virtuous people: they do not need in them … For most people, it would be good to enlighten them, but it is enough to make them afraid.

Generosity is defined by the cause of its manifestation.

Genius is the only a continuous attention.

If you want to be honest, take into consideration and believe only the public interest. Personal interest is often disorienting.

Just a few in their thoughts rise above the commonplace, but far less such people who would dare to act in such manner as they think.

Mission of the art is to excite the heart.

Of all the passions an envy is the most disgusting. Under the banner of envy, hatred, betrayal and intrigues stalk along.

Only the friend’s hand may snatch spikes from the heart.

Patrons of ignorance are essentially the fiercest enemies of humanity.

People who have the prejudices cannot be considered as friends. Their friendship is always dependent on the prejudices of others.

Riches are the slaves of sage and the lords of gander.

The mind often brightens only failed people.

The mind prepares the happiness that virtue completes.

The miser lives poor with a view to die rich.

The same virtues are evaluated at different times in different ways, depending on their usefulness to the stage.

The wisdom prevails in the advices and the fate – in the events.

To see clearly the indifference of almost all people to us is distressing for our vanity; but it is necessary to treat people as they are … To love people, a little should be expected from them.

Virtue is the only wisdom, which causes align passion with brain and pleasure with liability.

Who constitutes itself unhappy, becomes unhappy.

19 Precepts for Parents and Tutors by Maria Montessori

By | Wisdom of the Great

19 Precepts for Parents and Tutors by Maria Montessori It is considered that only four teachers of the XX century made the educational revolution. They are: John Dewey, an American, Georg Kerschensteiner, a German, Maria Montessori, an Italian, and Anton Makarenko, a soviet pedagogue.

Maria Montessori represented the short precepts-reminders for parents and tutors. The precepts are simple, but if you ponder the sense of each of the precepts – it is the multivolume wisdom in a few words. We advise to read over this list just for once a year and then the relations with children can pass on the new qualitative level and a child will grow a more developed and harmonious person.

1. Children are taught by what they are surrounded

2. If a child is often criticized – the child learns to criticize.

3. If a child is often praised – the child learns to apprise.

4. If a child sees the hostility- the child learns to fight.

5. If you are honest with a child- the child learns to be fair.

6. If a child is often satirized – the child learns to be shy

7. If a child lives with the feeling of safety – the child learns to believe

8. If a child is often discredited – the child learns to feel his/her guilt

9. If a child is often approved – the child learns to treat decently to himself/herself

10. If a child is often indulged – the child learns to be patient

11. If a child is often encouraged – the child becomes self-confident

12. If a child lives in the amicable atmosphere and feels his significance –the child learns to find love in the world

13. Do not run down about a child – neither in the child’s presence nor in the child’s absence

14. Concentrate on the development of good qualities in a child so that there will be no place for bad qualities

15. Always listen to and respond a child who turns to you

16. Respect the child who made a mistake and who can correct the mistake now or later

17. Be ready to help the child who is in a search and to be invisible for the child who found everything.

18. Help a child to discover unknown things. Do this, filling the environment with care, moderation, silence and love

19. Always treat with a child using good manners – always offer the child the best you have

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Gabriel’s Garcia Marquez Farewell Letter

By | Wisdom of the Great

Gabriel’s Garcia Marquez Farewell Letter Gabriel Jose de la Concordia Garcia Marquez is a Columbian prose writer, journalist, publisher and politician, laureate of Neustadt International Prize for Literature and Nobel Prize in Literature.

He was known as Gabo in childhood, born on March 6, 1927 in the town of Aracataca and was the eldest of sixteen children of simple pharmacist Eligio Garcia and Luisa Santiago Marquez Iguaran.

He is one of the key personality of Latin American ‘Literature Phenomenon’ of the 1960-s. The most famous work of Columbian writer is considered the novel ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’.

The great writer was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, appealed to readers with farewell letter:

If for an instant God were to forget that I am rag doll and gifted me with a piece of life, possibly I wouldn’t say all that I think, but rather I would think of all that I say.

I would value things, not for their worth but for what they mean.

I would sleep little, dream more, understanding that for each minute we close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.

I would walk when others hold back, I would wake when others sleep, I would listen when others talk.

How I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream!

If God were to give me a piece of life, I would dress simply, throw myself face first into the sun, baring not only my body but also my soul.

My God, if I had a little bit more time, I would write my hate on ice, and wait for the sun to show. Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti poem, and a Serra song would be the serenade I’d offer to the moon. With my tears I would water roses, to feel the pain of their thorns, and the red kiss of their petals.

My God, if I had a piece of life…I wouldn’t let a single day pass without telling the people I love that I love them. I would convince each woman and each man that I love them, and I would live in love with love.

To all men I would say how mistaken they are when they think that they stop falling in love when they grow old, without knowing that they grow old when they stop falling in love.

I would give winds to children and by myself I would teach him how to fly.

I would teach the old that death does not come with old age, but with forgetfulness.

So much have I learned from you, people.

I have learned that everyone wants to live on the peak of the mountain, without knowing that real happiness is in how it is scaled.

I have learned that when a newborn child holds with its little hand his father’s finger, it has trapped him for the rest of his life.

I have learned that a man has the right to look down on another only when he has to help the other get to his feet.

From you I have learned so many things, but in truth they won’t be of much use, for when I keep them within this suitcase, unhappily shall I be dying.

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