“GREAT THINKERS” – The School of Life

Before it was “The School of Life,” the site was called “The Book of Life.”
This was the original site invented by Alain de Botton.
I was so impressed with the easiness in reading the articles that I have printed and gather them into a file.
It was exactly like I was a baby and somebody fed me the food already chewed.
Many years later, I bought the book “Great thinkers,” and I discovered that many of the articles I have read were gathered in this volume.

One of the most exciting thing that I discovered was the philosopher
La Rochefoucauld:

“La Rochefoucauld developed the literary genre for which he has become known: that of the maxim, or aphorism, a pithy statement that deftly captures a dark insight into the human soul, reminding us of a wise and often uncomfortable truth.”

“It is easier to be wise for others than for oneself.”

“Everybody complains of his memory, but nobody of his judgement.”

“Our misdeeds are easily forgotten when they are known only to ourselves.”

“La Rochefoucauld wrote as he did because he wanted his ideas to persuade people whom he knew had little time and would not necessarily be on his side.
If most philosophers since have felt no need to write with elegance, wit and concision, it is because they have trusted that, so long as one idea’s are important, the style in which one delivers them is of no issue.

La Rochefoucauld knew otherwise.

Most of us are so distracted, if someone wants to get a point across to us, they must use all the devices of art to seize our attention and cauterise our boredom for the necessary span.
The history of philosophy would have been very different if its practitioners had all imagined themselves to be writing for an impatient non-professional audience with meandering minds in the midst of a chatty Parisian saloon.”

“For a woman hell is old age.”

“Age makes men both sillier and wiser.”

“Plenty of people despise money, but few know how to give it away.”

Publisher: The School of Life, 2016