In a political season, Daoist thinking on keeping the measure of things. ------------------ Whoever thinks what matters is to get rich is incapable of renouncing salary. Whoever thinks what matters is to get famous is incapable of renouncing reputation. Whoever is too fond of sway over others is incapable of letting another man take the [...]
Her sonnet meditates on human degradation, and self-degradation, in the new Iron Age. From "Epitaph on the Race of Man" Here lies, and none to mourn him but the sea, That falls incessant on the empty shore, Most various Man, cut down to spring no more; Before his prime, even in his infancy Cut down, [...]
Why read the classics: Italo Calvino (1923-1985) explains the nature of a classical literary composition, which has various means of speaking to us throughout the different times of our lives. If the books have remained the same (even though they too change in light of a different historical perspective), we ourselves have certainly changed, and the encounter [...]
Do we need a calendar for the season of love?
Umberto Eco explains how books, as our familial elders, deepen our emotional lives across generations. Valentino Bompiani once circulated a saying: “one person who reads is worth two.” It was said by a publisher probably as a clever slogan, but I think it means that writing (and in general language) lengthen one’s life. From the time when [...]
The ways engineering, in order to succeed, requires training in the humanities (for example, Russian literature) and vice versa!
The President of the New York Institute of Technology explains why the humanities are vital for scientific and medical inquiry.
George Washington, at the close of the Revolution, imagines the nation in concert with philosophers and lawgivers, who foster letters, commerce, and well-being. The Citizens of America, placed in the most enviable condition, as the sole Lords and Proprietors of a vast Tract of Continent, comprehending all the various soils and climates of the World, [...]
Words of warning from the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The humanities are declining because too many humanities scholars are alienating students and the public with their opacity, triviality, and irrelevance.
A Dream of Cicero Marbles: What’s wrong, Swan? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Swan: I have! I had a crazy dream last night I met Cicero. Marbles: You’re kidding. You’ve been reading your books too much. Swan: As little as I can, in fact, with all my teaching. I don’t have time [...]
