Week Three of our regular morning feature here at Friedman of the Plains Worldwide in which we highlight the great words and works of great men and women, as well as those who are insufferable, delusional, and even fictional.
This week, let’s continue with another brilliant JB . . . Jacob Bronowski, a Polish-born British mathematician, professor, and lover of William Blake, Albert Einstein, and humanity.
“I grew up,” Bronowski said, “to be indifferent to the distinction between literature and science, which in my teens were simply two languages for experience that I learned together.”
We should all grow up like that.
(Personal Note: He was born in Łódź, Poland, the same place as my grandfather, and died at 66, the same age as my grandfather.)
“There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push-button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering, has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit: the assertion of dogma that closes the mind, and turns a nation, a civilization, into a regiment of ghosts--obedient ghosts or tortured ghosts.” — The Ascent of Man
In the Buddhist belief system one of the states of human existence is that of "hungry ghost". Someone who can never be satisfied and is always hoping for more or better or more better or more bestest.