Venture into the unknown

"It takes a lot of courage to fight biases and oppressive regimes, but it takes even greater courage to admit ignorance and venture into the unknown. Secular education teaches us that if we don’t know something, we shouldn’t be afraid of acknowledging our ignorance and looking for new evidence. Even if we think we know something, we shouldn’t be afraid of doubting our opinions and checking ourselves again. Many people are afraid of the unknown, and want clear-cut answers for every question. Fear of the unknown can paralyse us more than any tyrant. People throughout history worried that unless we put all our faith in some set of absolute answers, human society will crumble. In fact, modern history has demonstrated that a society of courageous people willing to admit ignorance and raise difficult questions is usually not just more prosperous but also more peaceful than societies in which everyone must unquestioningly accept a single answer. People afraid of losing their truth tend to be more violent than people who are used to looking at the world from several different viewpoints. Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question."

Yuval Harari,  21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Living in times of Corona virus

24.
partir em viagem?
fico em casa
na companhia das flores de cerejeira

Yosa Buson

Like the end of an era

"You don't shit where you eat. And you really don't shit where I eat."

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know. 
His house is in the village though; 
He will not see me stopping here 
To watch his woods fill up with snow. 

My little horse must think it queer 
To stop without a farmhouse near 
Between the woods and frozen lake 
The darkest evening of the year. 

He gives his harness bells a shake 
To ask if there is some mistake. 
The only other sound’s the sweep 
Of easy wind and downy flake. 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 
But I have promises to keep, 
And miles to go before I sleep, 
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

"... Precisamente porque o amei, amei-o tanto que agora amo o meu antigo amor por ele..."

Lev Tolstói, Anna Karénina

Creating worlds is fun

How fake news actually work

"Providing people with more and better information is unlikely to improve matters. Scientists hope to dispel wrong views by better science education, and pundits hope to sway public opinions on issues such as Obamacare or global warming by presenting the public with accurate facts and expert reports. Such hopes are grounded in a misunderstanding of how humans actually think. Most of our views are shaped by communal group-think rather than individual rationality, and we hold on to these views out of group loyalty. Bombarding people with facts and exposing their individual ignorance is likely to backfire. Most people don’t like too many facts, and they certainly don’t like to feel stupid."

Yuval Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

via GIPHY

Feed me Seymour!

Paradise could look like this

Se tanto me dói que as coisas passem

É porque cada instante em mim foi vivo

Na luta por um bem definitivo

Em que as coisas de amor se eternizassem.

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Because even when I was flat broke

You made me feel like a million bucks
You do
I was made for you

Não me peçam razões

Não me peçam razões, que não as tenho,
Ou darei quantas queiram: bem sabemos
Que razões são palavras, todas nascem
Da mansa hipocrisia que aprendemos...
Não me peçam razões por que se entenda
A força de maré que me enche o peito,
Este estar mal no mundo e nesta lei:
Não fiz a lei e o mundo não aceito.
Não me peçam razões, ou que as desculpe,
Deste modo de amar e destruir:
Quando a noite é de mais é que amanhece
A cor de primavera que há-de vir.

In "Os Poemas Possíveis" 
Editorial Caminho

José Saramago 
(1922-2010)

You're all the world to me

"I am all abroad, and being in perplexity am always changing my opinion."

Socrates according to Plato, in Lesser Hippias

Ya no más

Diálogos com Kafka

Mas será que perdoaste o teu pai antes do final? Porque temos menos e menos em comum, hoje em dia.