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good early morning introspective topics...this is why I love this group! Cheers!
Søren Kierkegaard on Friendship & Confidentiality
This week's wisdom is once again that of Søren Kierkegaard, this time on friendship and confidentiality....
Quite a solitary mood, here!
Having a true friend of confidant beyond echo and silence seems more heartwarming to me…
Best, Emmanuel
Best, Emmanuel
Indeed =)
I agree, despite having gone through a good number of years without much of an active friendship with someone, and having first read this some fifteen years ago when that was certainly the case (right about the time I joined WPS!), real friendship is a cornerstone of humanity and mental health! Nevertheless, this citation still resonates profoundly to me, because at the end of the day even our closest family members and friends can never know us absolutely, there is always an element inside us that is perhaps unknowable even to ourselves . When I read this quote, I likewise frequently think of a quote an ancient Greek philosopher once proclaimed - 'If everyone knew what was being said behind their back, there would not be four friends in the world.' 
.... Misanthropic perhaps, but quite accurate in a certain way of looking at things no?? Cheers my friend, Filip
. When I read this quote, I likewise frequently think of a quote an ancient Greek philosopher once proclaimed - 'If everyone knew what was being said behind their back, there would not be four friends in the world.' .... Misanthropic perhaps, but quite accurate in a certain way of looking at things no?? Cheers my friend, Filip
Pascal in his Pensées (978-100):
« Thus human life is nothing but a perpetual illusion; there is nothing but mutual deception and flattery. No one talks about us in our presence as he would in our absence. Human relations are only based on this mutual deception; and few friendships would survive if everyone knew what his friend said about him behind his back, even though he spoke sincerely and dispassionately. »
Talk about a man beset with tremendous tragedy....
yet a polymath genius throughout his short life. I love him for his work in physics and math even more than for his Pensées, although it is only the second half of the book which turns to Catholicism that I don't have an interest in, the first half is what the majority of literary people engage with and love. In particular that everlasting nugget of wisdom: 'Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demurer en repos, dans une chambre.' id est 'All of man's unhappiness comes from his inability to stay peacefully, alone in his room.' I will have to make another entry in my all-time citations album now 
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Interesting, but what were Soren and Pascal's thoughts on two tone watches?
good early morning introspective topics...this is why I love this group! Cheers!