Kwatrijnen

Die na mij komen, lezen mijn kwatrijnen.
Zij zullen sidderen, als zij verstaan,
Met welk een marteling van hartepijnen
Ik zingend door het Leven ben gegaan.

Jacob Israël de Haan (1881-1924)

By all means marry !

... if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

Socrates - Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC - 399 BC)

Shakespeare revised

To be or to be conscious.
That is the question!

Second opinion

I asked my doctor for a second opinion.
“Ok” he said “you’re ugly too”.

Henny Youngman (1906-1998)



To the next post in the "Accident" sequence.

It's a tragic game

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor..." - Sholom Aleichem (1859-1916)

Most of the time ...

"Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all." - Woody Allen

Know thyself

"Every human foolishness and shortcoming, every human failure has to be contemplated with compassion, realizing that we see our own foolishnesses, shortcomings and failures. They are only the shortcomings of humanity, of which we are part, and they therefore lie concealed in us all. We shouldn't be indignant about others, just because fortuitously that moment, their misbehaviors do not manifest themselves in us."

From "Parerga and Paralipomena" by Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860)

"Iedere menselijke dwaasheid en tekortkoming, ieder menselijk falen dient met mededogen te worden beschouwd, in het besef dat wij onze eigen dwaasheden en tekortkomingen, ons eigen falen voor ons zien. Want het zijn slechts tekortkomingen van de mensheid waarvan ook wij deel uitmaken en bijgevolg schuilen zij in ons allen. Wij moeten niet zo verontwaardigd zijn over anderen, omdat hun euveldaden op dat moment toevalligerwijs bij ons niet aan het licht treden."

Uit "Parerga en Paralipomena" door Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860)

Noble

“It was a big stove, a hundred years old, the warmth radiating from its belly like benevolence radiating from a flabby man with a fat paunch who wants to mollify his selfishness with a cheap and saintlike act of charity.”

From "Embers" by Sándor Márai (1900 - 1989).

"Het was een grote kachel, honderd jaar oud, de warmte straalde uit zijn buik zoals de welwillendheid afstraalt van een vadsige man met een dikke buik die zijn zelfzucht wil verzachten met een vrome en goedkope weldaad."

Uit "Gloed" door Sándor Márai (1900 - 1989).

The greatest good you can do for another...

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."
- Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Confident

"With a statement like this, I’ll never get quoted." - Circumspection

Being ridiculous

"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous, everyone hasn't met me yet."
- Rodney Dangerfield (1921 - 2004)

I've had a wonderful time...

"I've had a wonderful time, but this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx (1890-1977)




To the next post in the "Midlife" sequence.

His Loyal Opposition

"To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition." - Woody Allen

God's reputation

"I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't." - Jules Renard (1864 - 1910)

Mind opener...

“If any help was going to arrive to lift me out of my misery, it would come from the dark side of my personality.”

Robert Bly, A little book on the human shadow.