What a wanderer could wonder about...

Sunday, November 25, 2007

A Deeply Religious Man!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
-- Albert Einstein (The World As I See It)

This is just a fantastic way of describing true religiosity! And I can't agree more with this sentence: "Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed." It is a pity though, that among the first things most people lose, regardless of their being an atheists, agnostics or blindly religious, are seeking, wondering and marveling.

You can read an abridged version of the essay here.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Ringing in my ears...

...
گويم سخن را بازگو
مردي كَرم ز آغازگو

هين بي ملولي شرح كن
من سخت كُند و كودنم

گوید که آن گوش گران
بهتر ز هوش دیگران

صد فضل دارد این بر آن
کانجا هوا اینجا منم
...
-- مولوی

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Sear-born Treasures

I wiped away the weeds and foam,
I fetched my sea-born treasures home;
But the poor, unsightly, noisome things
had left their beauty on the shore,
With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here they are.

I just wished I could go collect shells instead of the _not studying_ here....

Thursday, November 15, 2007

It is not something discovered: it is something molded

Happiness! It is useless to seek it elsewhere than in this warmth of human relations. Our sordid interests imprison us within their walls. Only a comrade can grasp us by the hand and haul us free.

And these human relations must be created. One must go through an apprenticeship to learn the job. Games and risk are a help here. When we exchange manly handshakes, compete in races, join together to save one of us who is in trouble, cry aloud for help in the hour of danger - only then do we learn that we are not alone on earth.

Each man must look to himself to learn the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something moulded. These prison walls that the age of trade has built around us, we can break down. We can still run free, call to our comrades, and marvel to hear once more, in response to our call, the chant of the human voice. -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Terre des Hommes, aka. Wind, Sand and Stars)

I have recently and gradually come to learn that it is such a greatness, beyond measure, to grasp the true value of human relations.

And good relations and true friendships are definitely molded through persistence and courage, not achieved over night out of sheer luck,... almost everything is so. Talking of luck and chance, Salman has an interesting post in his bugs of life series, called, "Chance is not just out of chance". Interesting read (in Persian).

Friday, November 02, 2007

Epigrams on Programming

"Everyone can be taught to sculpt: Michelangelo would have had to be taught how not to. So it is with the great programmers." -- Alan J. Perlis

This quote is from an interesting text by Alan J. Perlis called Epigrams on Programming. There are some 130 quite interesting epigrams there, worth a look.