A Man with Good Manners

 

It is the manner of the self righteous to be boors even when they may be in the right.

—Bien educado es el hombre que se excusa al usar

sus derechos.

—A man with good manners excuses himself as he

makes use of his rights.

Youth

 So true.

—La juventud es promesa que cada generación incumple.

—Youth is a promise each generation breaks.

The Last Frontier

 —En las tinieblas del mal la inteligencia es el postrer

reflejo de Dios, el reflejo que nos persigue con porfía,

el reflejo que no se extingue sino en la última

frontera.

—In the dark shadows of evil, intelligence is the

reflection of God behind us, the reflection which

obstinately pursues us, the reflection which is not

extinguished except on the last frontier.

Wordiness

 Wordiness is not an overabundance of words but a

shortage of ideas.

Wordiness is not an overabundance of words but a

shortage of ideas.

From:  SCHOLIA

TO AN

IMPLICIT TEXT

This is so true. I don’t know what can be added to it.  I suppose I could think of examples.  One that comes to mind is Mark Carney’s book on Values,

Intelligence is the Reflection

 —En las tinieblas del mal la inteligencia es el postrer

reflejo de Dios, el reflejo que nos persigue con porfía,

el reflejo que no se extingue sino en la última

frontera.

—In the dark shadows of evil, intelligence is the

reflection of God behind us, the reflection which

obstinately pursues us, the reflection which is not

extinguished except on the last frontier.

The evil an idiot commits

 

I am on Rumble

 

A reminder for me

 As it stands, I have been in Brandon for two months and still haven’t found work.  What to do?

From Nicolás Gómez Dávila:

Depender sólo de la voluntad de Dios es nuestra

verdadera autonomía.

To depend only on the will of God is our true

autonomy.

Originality

 —Nadie piensa seriamente mientras la originalidad le importa.

—Nobody thinks seriously as long as originality matters to him.

Truth.

There is no villainy equal

 

—No hay vileza igual a la del que se apoya en

virtudes del adversario para vencerlo.

—There is no villainy equal to that of the man who supports himself with the virtues of his adversary in order to conquer him.

In this aphorism, Davila describes perfectly the phenomenon called liberal projection where the liberal accuses his opponent of doing what he is actually doing himself, all the while cloaking himself in virtue. Specific example: turning the Kimmel dismissal into a free speech issue.

This video das had over 7K views on three of the platforms on which I have posted it.

Truth

 —Verdad es lo que dice el más inteligente. (Pero nadie sabe quién es el más inteligente.)

— Truth is what the most intelligent man says. (But nobody knows who the most intelligent man is.)

Our Aspirations

 —Nuestros anhelos, en boca ajena, suelen parecernos

una estupidez irritante.

—Our aspirations, in someone else’s mouth, usually come across to us as irritating stupidity.

Example: when someone says I want to be a writer.

History

 

—La historia erige y derrumba, incesantemente, las estatuas de virtudes distintas sobre el inmóvil

pedestal de los mismos vicios.

—History erects and topples, incessantly, the statues of different virtues on top of the unmoving pedestal of the same vices.

Human nature never changes?

The engagement that my NGD videos are getting in China.

 As I have mentioned in previous entries, I get more engagement and likes of my NGD videos in China than I do on North American platforms like YouTube.  I get five to ten times more views on WeChat for the videos than I do on YouTube.  People make comments on the videos on WeChat but never has a comment been made on YouTube.  Some of the comments are very intelligent indeed. Maybe, the Chinese subtitles annoy the YouTube viewers.

Recently, I put my Weixin ID at the end of my videos and I got two requests for contactship because of it.  I had some good chats with these new contacts.  One of them was in Chongqing.  The other was a female university student who like the philosophical content of my videos which she used to practice English.

Anyway, I would love that kind of interaction with this blog.

I request your engagement.

2200 views!  Viral in China!

Everything looks like chaos

 

• Todo nos parece caos, menos nuestro propio desorden.
• Everything looks like chaos to us, except our own disorder.

So true. It is easy for me to look at the people who hate Trump and were happy that Charlie Kirk was shot dead, and think about how disorganised and dysfunctional are their thoughts and lives.  But we all have our blind spots about ourselves.  We aren't aware of a flaw we have that everyone else notices. 

Resignation to Daily Banality

 

—El precio que la inteligencia cobra a quienes elige

es la resignación a la trivialidad cotidiana.

—The price intelligence charges its chosen ones is resignation to daily banality.

To Age with Dignity

 

—Envejecer con dignidad es tarea de todo instante.

—To age with dignity is the task of every moment.

Agree? Disagree?  Please comment below.

Modern Man has lost his soul

 

It seems I did two videos for this quote.  Which one do you think is better?  The second one got over 1,500 views.

It is Enough

—Basta que la hermosura roce nuestro tedio, para que nuestro corazón se rasgue como seda entre las

manos de la vida.

—It is enough for beauty to touch our tedium for our heart to be torn like silk between the hands of life.

I felt this way when I attended Mass last evening.  NDG was a fervent Catholic.  I am going to enroll in the RCIA program this autumn.

Solitude and Common Places

 

I didn't post a NGD video this morning.  So, here is one I did over six months ago.

—El hombre recobra en la soledad aliento para vivir.

—In solitude man recovers strength to live.

The Momentary Beauty of the Instant

 

The momentary beauty of the instant is the only

thing in the universe which conforms to the eagerness of our soul.

La momentánea belleza del instante es lo único que

concuerda en el universo con el afán de nuestras almas.

I don’t know what further observations I could add to this aphorism. 

Man is an animal

 

—El hombre es un animal que imagina ser hombre.

—Man is an animal that imagines it is a man.

Agree? Disagree?  In this day and age, time and place, man doesn’t seem capable of that.

Vulgarity

 

Vulgarity consists in claiming to be what we are not.

La vulgaridad consiste en pretender ser lo que no somos.

I hope this aphorism is not indicting me.  I am a fan of NGD. I don’t claim to be a profound thinker.

An Upright Personality

 

—Cuando hoy nos dicen que alguien carece de personalidad, sabemos que se trata de un ser sencillo, probo, recto.

—When today they tell us that someone lacks

personality, we know they are speaking of a simple, trustworthy, upright being.

I posted this video a few weeks ago.  I posted a Simone Weil Video on my Youtube channel.

What did NGD think of Weil.  Did he find her profound, or merely clever?

Online today, I was talking to a person from Columbia.  He hadn't heard of NGD.  He said he was very interested in discussing politics.  So, perhaps, I can introduce him to NGD.  That is if he chooses me as an online tutor.

To be a "personality" today, one does have to be glib and fast talking. Slow and thoughtful can lead to one not being given full attention.  In the world of tik-tok, you will be quickly swiped over to the next short video.

True Glory

 

—La verdadera gloria es la resonancia de un nombre en la memoria de los imbéciles.

—True glory is the resonance of a name in the memory of imbeciles.

We are more likely to remember the names of sports stars than saints or wise man.

Thus, fame and/or glory are things not worth going for, even for fifteen minutes.