asFORisms 2

Cristache Gheorghiu

asFORisms 2

(A Kind of Thoughts)

Translated from Romanian by Dana Bunoaica Athens, 2016 Pastel Publishing House

Edited by: Editura Pastel Braşov e-mail: editurapastel@gmail.com tel: 0733.043.263

Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naţionale a României GHEORGHIU, CRISTACHE A kind of thoughts : asFORisms / Cristache Gheorghiu ; trad. în lb. engleză: Dana Bunoaica. - 2015vol.

ISBN 978-606-670-513-4 Vol. 3. - Braşov : Pastel, 2016.

- ISBN 978-606-658-228-5 I. Bunoaica, Dana (trad.)

821.135.1-84=111

2

After I wrote "Alone among the Americans," one suggested me to write "Almost alone among the Romanians".

(No joke)

3

Tastes are different; only good taste is common.

4

Although sometimes they accused me of philosophizing, I think I am more rambling, but – I admit - I love it.

5

The symbol of digit 2 is derived from the answer to the simplest question: 1+1=?

Therefore, why asking so many questions when the answer to the simplest question remains a question too?

6

Lying was the first man’s creation.

7

Ordinary people get along well without speaking too much. But, as they get trained, they speak a lot without understanding each other.

8

It's not that difficult to guess the future; try to imagine what could be worse. If it doesn’t happen exactly, it means that you did not have enough imagination.

9

"Only eagles and reptiles reach on the top of the highest cliffs" said Montesquieu. But coming from different directions, I am adding.

10

I quit smoking and I'm glad did that. If I had never smoked I would have not known this joy.

11

Democracy is like a hammer.

While a professional can accomplish great things with it, badly handled it could bump your fingers.

12

Contradictory talking is the privilege of those who think.

13

The phrase "the truth is in the middle" is ridiculous; There is not a mean between true and false.

14

Philosophize just for you!

15

Before being democrats we should be honest.

16

Theory triggers dialogue; experience never does.

17

We try to understand nature through our logic; but nature has a different logic.

18

You love when you suffer for the beloved one.

19

The stoic’s advice: tell me what you want, and I will show you the futility of your desire.

20

There are only philosophers; philosophy is an abstract notion, a wish.

21

From the current international political situation we can clearly see that the others’ fools are smarter than our fools.

22

The flavour of the anecdote is to be found not only in its gist, but to whom you say it.

23

Losing the hair could be avoided with a simple adhesive band. It is how politicians try to rescue the national economy.

24

The politician's dream: to change what he doesn’t understand.

25

In the animals’ world, the female is the head; she selects the male. Only people want to change a natural law, obviously, without success.

26

A simple change of the angle of lighting can make objects unrecognizable.

That is why, you can recognize people only if they have their own light.

27

The perfect democracy is the good-for-nothing’s dictatorship.

28

In captivity, you can find a way of salvation; in freedom you have no chance.

29

In the battle between two moron giants, a smart dwarf manages the best.

30

Unlike the high mountains, which separate, the rivers unite people on both sides, being a common place of work.

Transforming them into borders between countries proves the stupidity of political acts.

31

To be recognized, every religion must answer to the existential problems of ordinary people.

How could we explaine the involution of Christianity and the rise of Islamism?

32

Disappointments come after the dream is fulfilled and we see that it was wrong.

33

Metaphysics = the field of those who lost the exam of physics.

34

We are objective in front of an unknown object, but we become subjective as we begin to know it, because we judge through the new gained knowledge, always partial.

35

The origin of monotheism The primitive man could see idols in every tree. In the desert, the number of potential idols dramatically decreased.

36

We love useless things.

37

The field of philosophy is that of questions without answer.

Hence its eternity.

38

Quoting philosophers is easy. Becoming a disciple of them is more difficult.

39

Unlike science, which aims to give answers, literature makes us ask questions ourselves.

40

You compare himself with a smart man in vain, if he does not compare with you.

41

I think the idea of reincarnation belongs to those who missed their life and hope in a second chance.

42

One cannot learn wisdom, but love for it, could be induced.

43

If we evolved from apes, our intelligence was not very helpful.

44

According to the logic of some people, cockroaches want to become beetles of salon.

That’s how they get to starve. People.

Beetles think more practically.

45

Can a man perfectly adapted to a sick society be considered healthy?

46

Heraclitus: "Between gold and straws, a donkey prefers the straws." It seems normal to me. Why we, the humans, think we're smarter?

47

It seems that we are to replace the old „O.K.” with "Oh, Gay."

48

Ask 50-60 years old men how their sexlife is and you'll learn all about their character.

49

"The mistake of birth is paid with life." (Some make it, others pay.)

50

Some artists believe that their art is like religion: you must believe in it, not enjoy it.

51

Peace treaties are accepted if they leave open the ways allowing the war to revive.

52

The print machine appeared during the decline of Catholic religion and it facilitated the spread of Protestantism.

Today the Internet came, during the decline of culture.

What should we expect?

53

The future depends on you.

Do not lose time; go to sleep.

54

Friends come and go; only enemies troop together.

55

Among the classical landmarks (man, cosmos, divinity), the modernists eliminated the divinity, the post-modernists eliminated the cosmos, so man remained dehumanized, without identity.

56

A thought can be chased away only by another thought.

57

The peak of intuition: to issue ideas that did not cross you mind.

58

The press is free on the whole; every publication depends on the leadership of the publisher which emits it.

59

The rigor of being yourself‌ A heavy burden!!

60

We speak about purity, when its presence is unexpected, like the lotus flower.

61

Postmodernism: the ultimate refinement of bad taste.

62

Judging by the number of practitioners, it seems that the cigarette smoke is more effective than incense.

63

The dog is a man's best friend, because he bites us only of leg.

64

Only curiosity makes man risking the evil, in the search for the better.

65

Thomas More had already lost his head, since he wrote "Utopia". His beheading by Henry VIII was just a pointless revenge.

66

The devil (disasters) brings people closer to each another, while God (wellbeing) splits them.

67

Misogynist - why only men can have such feelings?

68

Most incapable people are capable of anything.

69

God is atheist.

70

Pride depends on glands, not on brain.

71

Women are like flowers: the more scented they are, the faster they wither.

72

Sculptors - men of polished stone.

73

“Silence is golden” That’s why the owl is considered a symbol of wisdom: it sleeps all day.

74

I got life without instructions for use.

75

Zero? It may be the result of adding some very high opposite values.

76

We don’t learn much about the sea, watching only its waves.

77

Hell can be Heaven improved by men’s hand.

78

Sometimes, powerlessness is taken as a virtue.

79

The planet Venus is an inferno, but seen from afar, it became a symbol of beauty.

It happens!

80

Lightning strikes tall and isolated trees.

81

If some change their homeland, borders are to blame.

82

If I knew the date of my death, I would die early due to stress.

83

Neither the diamond glows in the dark.

84

He is too silly to have enemies.

85

Refusing natural instincts should not be considered a virtue.

86

If you sit near a colossus, it could crush you in its falling.

87

Asserting that life arose by chance on earth, we prove that it has no sense.

88

I do not think God verifies the presence of believers in the church.

89

The cloth put to dry thinks that it fights with the wind.

90

God is everything beyond our understanding, but we wouldn’t burden him with everything we don’t understand.

91

We love only not edible animals.

92

We love our neighbour more, if he keeps the distance.

93

He is weak because he is laziy to be strong.

94

The purpose of every ideology: to give crime a noble motivation.

95

Let's dream! Progress is born by dreams. Great dreams, bright future.

So let's go to bed! Sleep provides dreams.

96

The ideal of ecologist parties: an ergonomic electric chair.

97

Some light, some shine.

Most are content to twinkle in light conversation.

98

Any true revolution is preceded by a great utopia.

99

Are you asking me to overcome evil, namely the Devil, when God obtained only a tie.

100

You can rely on the air, but you need wings.

101

The top of self love: to say to yourself: "Nice to meet you."

102

Some ship sinks with their sails up.

103

If we were truly faithful, we would die less reluctantly, since we go to heaven.

The galloping donkey arouses laughter.

106

Are there dreams in the perpetual sleep?

107

If we get to heaven, do we become fellow citizens with God?

108

We regard the universe like an estate, in which God is the castellan and we some beggars at the gate.

109

How nicely flies the eagle, looking a corpse. . .

110

An systematically repeated error is no longer an error, but a natural law, which should be treated as such.

Our mentality was wrong.

111

Perhaps the chaos is ordered, but incomprehensible for us.

112

To see through the darkness of your ignorance! It would be something!

113

If one can dream during the eternal sleep it would be a shame to wake the dead.

114

Aphrodite was born from the foam of the sea. Beauty is ephemeral, inconsistent and superficial.

115

The shards shine as well, if they are properly illuminated.

116

Horns maintain the crown on the head better.

117

When you are tramped by someone, you find his value better.

118

We owe everything to the serpent. Without it, Eva would walk barefoot through heaven even today.

119

A mountain seems higher if its precipices are deeper.

120

I keep an agreeable opinion about myself, if I look in the mirror without glasses.

121

For many believers, God is a institution providing charitable services.

122

Sometimes we use the phrase "honestly speaking".

Seldom!

123

We are like rivers: always unsteady and yet the same.

124

Life means appetite.

Literally and figuratively.

125

When life stands, years run.

126

The history manual: human errors strung like laundry to dry.

127

He who hates needs people as feedstock.

128

Do not be surprised that he is not the first according to ours criterion. He has his order.

129

"In the beginning was the Word�.

We are the victims of words.

130

If you help someone in trouble he will remember you only when he is again in trouble.

131

The head is the place where the mouth - the most important human organ - is to be found.

132

Days pass quickly; the hours pass more difficult.

133

We envy the dragons, because they have multiple heads, but not to think, but to eat with them.

134

European legends have a sad end. The main theme is love, but it ends badly.

In Asia, the hero marries a beautiful girl and they both live happily till old ages.

Which of them are more instructive?

135

Everything which arises spontaneously, disappears spontaneously.

136

Children do not repeat the mistakes of their parents; they make others, original, but according to the education received from parents.

137

Enterprising is the one who sees a gate, where others see a wall.

138

Modesty If all my qualities and defects are placed on the plates of a balance, the qualities climb very high.

139

The different evolution of the two American continents is due to the fact that the Yankees were independent people, while the Spaniards were officers of the state.

140

Five of the eight leaders of the 1975 massacres in Cambodia were francophone, they had studied in France in the 50s years of last century and listened to Sartre with his theory of "necessary violence."

141

We prefer to lend our ugliness to others instead of imitating their beauty.

142

A prophet is not a visionary but a man of the present.

Compared to the wise men of his time, he has the ability to communicate with people.

143

A truly democratic country would already be bankrupt.

144

You choose your friends, so they resemble you.

The one who blames them is like a dog barking in front of a mirror.

145

Homo sapiens appeared 500,000 years ago but it disappeared.

146

If I did something wrong, I am asking to be burned, but only after death.

147

The level of development of a country is given by how people know to cooperate.

148

A nuisance is a trifle if it happens to strangers, a tragedy if it affects us and something that was expected to happen to a close person.

149

Nature is not perfect, but it is consistent with its own errors.

150

I know someone who has amazingly climbed all social levels, remaining as ignorant in each of them.

151

The free people can not afford to speak about not allowed things, for fear of losing their freedom.

152

The attempts of developed countries to hinder terrorism is like those who want to increase their resistance to alcohol instead of drinking less.

153

Nothing is more terrible than another’s luck.

154

Even in a war there are more important things than the war.

155

There is not a great difference between Schopenhauer’s "will of living " and Bergson’s "vital élan". There is a greater difference between life and what they think about it.

156

Enthusiasm en-theon-siasmos - the state in which God dwells inside you.

157

In the absence of the husband / wife, a companion dog is acceptable. In all cases a proper leash is useful.

158

Practical advice: Give the right to way those who come out from a restaurant Give the right to way those who want to enter into the toilet of the restaurant.

159

Promenade: many couples go together talking separately (on cellphones).

160

If God knew to laugh, it would be much more convincing.

161

I pray that St. Catherine to protect me.

(She is the protector of fools)

162

The Greeks gestures a lot when they talk. Their movements are never symmetrical, so it could means that they say YES with one hand and NO with the other.

163

It is difficult to accept friends’ mistakes, as we accept ours.

164

We cultivate love for animals that could be trained to love us.

165

Unlettered people think they are smart, because they cope without too much science.

166

Hippocrates was not a hypocritical. There are however many hypocritical who claim to be followers of Hippocrates.

167

State capitals should be changed periodically. Thus, much of corruption would be avoid and the effect of local gangs would be decreased.

168

You help a man who has failed to raise, if he can go.

169

We have great disputes on minor problems and minor ones in great issues.

170

Greeting variants: "Cheers!", when there is a chance; "Health", for overcoming a difficult period, hoping that the future will be better; "God help!", when only God could do something for us.

171

A developed language is that that can express complex ideas in an easy way, understandable by common people. Therefore, the snob’s language and easy literature are worthless from the cultural point of view.

172

During my youth, I was always in a hurry, although all of my life was ahead.

Now, even if the remained time is shorter, I learned to be patient.

173

Elders’ words are old but not obsolete, as they are eternal truths. The words of young people are ephemeral and woe to one who does not make a difference.

174

- You slept with the book in your arms?

- You have just interrupted my reading dream.

175

Some people produce culture; others use it in personal interest.

Never the same!

176

Nature takes care to perpetuate species. To achieve its purpose, it sacrifices the individual.

Individual happiness would mean the extinction of species.

177

A teenage girl has no future; she will become an old woman, if she lives long enough. Her chance is not in stagnation, but in becoming.

178

In life, you can do anything, provided you stop in timely.

179

Noah's Ark was built by amateurs; The Titanic by professionals.

180

"Don Juan" was created by men. Would a "Dona Juanita," written by women, have the same success?

181

Stealing the Greek statues, the Europeans, brought home the microbe of beauty. But, as ugliness was in their genes, they could not remove it. This was how modern art issued.

182

It's easy to think you can do everything. For that, doing nothing is all you have to do.

183

Reason is predictable; therefore, it may be counteracted.

Passion is unpredictable. It can be successful just because of surprise.

184

Man meditates only if he has a complaint that prompts him for it.

185

"Mens sana in corpore sano".

We are born healthy; the mistakes of the head make us sick.

186

"Science Literature" Literature removed the sciences from its field, deeming them unworthy of her "humanist" spirit. Now, it tries to become a science itself. If successful, it means that it has to eliminate itself.

187

"Like men, dogs can become ill from nervous fatigue if human conditions of life are created for then."

It's obviously a joke.

"Man can make even a dog ill from nervous fatigue." It is unfortunately possible.

188

Smart is not the one who knows many things, but the one who understands how the things he knows work.

189

At the oracle from Delphi, most questions of 3000 years ago were the same as today. Why do we think that, in the meantime, we have progressed?

190

Modern justice is based on the idea that legislative code must be perfect and legal processes must be carried out according to the rules and not to the judges’ logic, which could be wrong. It would be great if not utopian. The effect of a similar concept, that of the communist ideal society, is known.

The very idea of perfection denotes a level of vanity and unacceptable ignorance.

191

A crucifix hanging from one’s neck is meant to draw attention to the surrounding area. Faith is an intimate matter; it shouldn’t be displayed.

192

The outlawed is, to some extent, suicidal, because he has to hide a part of his identity.

193

Even the flowers of some weeds can be beautiful too.

194

"After all the lies will be forgotten, the truth" remais, that is almost nothing.

195

You become mature to the extent life forces you to do it. Age is not of great importance.

196

Some Russian painters, with a solid artistic education, acquired at art academies in Russia, declare to have been educated in an obscure college in the West, in order to be commercially successful on the Western art market.

197

We are accused of duplicity: Thinking something, we do something different. In reality, triplicity is our feature: we think something, say something different and do nothing.

198

Declaring themselves to be wise, philosophers deny their vocation, because philosophy means love for wisdom, searching for it, which means we do not possess it, yet.

199

Only stupidity is natural; all the others are acquired during the life.

200

The writer writes what he thinks. The reader interprets what he reads as he thinks it.

201

After Newton introduced mathematics in the natural sciences, some humanists want to imitate him, not realizing the ridiculousness of the situation.

202

People want to be understood by animals because they can not understand the language of animals.

203

Light-year is a unit of measurement for space. For time we may have the darkness-year, filled with events.

204

Today, many people know how to read and write, but few can understand what they read.

205

The idea you will be lucky, makes you to think you are what you are not. Only bad luck can tell you what you really are.

206

Shakespeare is great not because he posed the question "To be or not to be?", but because he had the wisdom of not answering to it.

207

I am thinking: maybe The Last Judgement has already been, and what occurs to us are its consequences.

208

Love is sung when it can not be tasted.

209

All men are keen to be wise.

We always want what we miss.

210

The author’s other books • • • • • • • • • •

U.S.A. '95, (in Romanian language) Singur printre americani (in Romanian language) America After America (in English language) Între două idealuri (in Romanian language) Tradiţie sau liberul arbitru? (in Romanian language) Where Is My Way? (in English language) Remanenţe informatice (Scientific researches, in Romanian language) Memoriile unui căţel adult (in Romanian language) asFORisme - un fel de cugetări (in Romanian language) A Kind of Thoughts (in English language)

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• • • • • • • • •

212

Un genre de réflexion (in French language) Filosofia unui bolovan (in Romanian language) Grecia - note de călătorie (in Romanian language) America after America, JustFiction Edition, Germany, 2012, (in English language) Scrisori din Atena, Editura Pastel, 2012 (in Romanian language) A Boulder’s Philosophy, Bibliotastic, New York, 2012, (in English language) With Love from Athens, 2012, (in English language) Anastasia, 2013, (in Romanian language) Anastasia, 2013, (in English language)

• • • • • • • •

asFORisme 2 - Un fel de cugetări, 2013 (in Romanian language) Eseuri vesele şi triste, 2014, (in Romanian language) Căutări, 2014, (in Romanian language) Dicţionar roman-grec de verbe pentru începători, 2015, (in Romanian language) După 50 de ani, 2015, (in Romanian language) Memoria timpului pierdut, 2016, (in Romanian language) A Kind of Thoughts 2 (in English language) asFORisme 3 - Un fel de cugetări, 2016, (in Romanian language)

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