The Essence of Thought: La Sombra del Viento/The Shadow of the Wind

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth—more than ruin—even more than death … Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of [people].”
—Bertrand Russell, British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872-1970)

“From my earliest years, I have accepted many false opinions as true.”
—Rene Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, & physicist (1596-1650)

“Invent the age, invent the metaphor. Without a credible structure of law a society is inconceivable. Without a workable poetry no society can conceive a [person].”
—Archibald MacLeish, American poet & author (1892-1982)

“Until lions have their own historians, histories of the hunt will glorify the hunter.”
—African proverb

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when [one] contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery everyday. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
—Albert Einstein, US (German-born) physicist (1879-1955)

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
—Henry David Thoreau, American poet & philosopher (1817-1862)

“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for the love of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau, American poet & philosopher (1817-1862)

“Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy and vain. To be a man of knowledge one needs to be light and fluid.”
—Carlos Castaneda in “A Separate Reality: The Yaqui Way of Knowledge,” American author (1925-1998)

“To know is nothing at all. To imagine is everything.”
—Anatole France, French poet & novelist (1844-1924)

Copyright © 2017 Dr. Martin Guevara Urbina. All rights reserved.