Epigrams by Leonardo Da Vinci

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.

Experience does not err. Only your judgements err by expecting from her what is not in her power.

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards the ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.

Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

Shun those studies in which the work that results dies with the worker.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

How to WIN Lottery

Harry has slogged for a large part of his life to support his family. He already holds a full-time job and takes on 2 part-time jobs to supplement his income. Still, he only earns enough to put food on the table for his family of 6. His parents needs money for medication, his daughter needs new shoes for school and his son will be starting high school soon. He needs money, in fact, Harry needs a small windfall.

He concluded that the only possible move is to win the lottery. Being a religious man, he prays daily to God. But this time round, he wants to be more specific in his prayers and prayed to win the lottery.

“Dear God, I really need the money for my family. There’s no need to strike 1st prize, a small windfall will do. I will use the money wisely. Please let me win!”

He prayed hard everyday. Nothing happened for a week, and the same thing on the 2nd week. Then, he heard news that his neighbour won 1st prize the previous week!

“Dear God, I hope you are hearing my pleads. My parents really need the money for their medication. I can’t bear to see them suffer. Please let me win!”

The next day, his colleague won 1st prize and treated the office to dinner.

“Dear God, I know you are a busy man. My son is entering high school soon and I can’t afford his tuition fees and books. I can’t let my daughter wear those shoes anymore. Please let me win!”

Suddenly, the ground beneath him starts to shake and a loud booming voice came down from above.

“You idiot! How can I let you win when you don’t even buy a ticket??”

There are many things in life we want and pray daily for, but we never realize we need to take the first step, we need to “buy a ticket”! No one, not even God, can help if you do not first create the circumstance to make it possible to achieve your dreams in the first place.

So go! “Get your ticket” now!

Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby

This post is inspired by the book David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. The book attempts to explore how the disadvantaged triumph by utilizing the very odds stacked against them. There’s mentioned of a story of 2 characters, Brer Rabbit & Brer Fox, and how Brer Rabbit managed to escape from Brer Fox’s clutches with his wit. Here’s the abridged version…
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The Eagle who lived a Chicken

One day a young eagle fell off the nest and was picked up by a farmer. The farmer was kind enough to bring the small bird to his barnyard so that it doesn’t perish. The young eagle found a good home with the chicken and grew up believing he is a chicken. He waited for the farmer to bring food, he quacked when a chicken laid an egg, and he enjoyed running around and sitting in a hole in the ground on sunny days. Life was good and comfortable, and the eagle’s wildest adventure was to run under the fence with his friends to that cliff where they looked at the mountains and wondered what lied on their other side.

One day he was with his fellow chicken picking seeds off the ground when a shadow covered the sky above him. He lifted his gaze and was mesmerized by the sight of a beautiful eagle cruising the sky. Unlike other chicken that he saw trying to fly, this eagle didn’t seem to be making much effort. With his wings spread wide, he was flying smoothly and changing his direction with the slightest gesture. “Wow. Look at that!”, yelled the young eagle to his friends. “Who is that?”, he asked. “That’s an eagle”, replied a chicken. “He’s the king of the sky. But we belong here on earth. We are chicken.”, she continued. And the eagle staring at the bird disappearing in the horizon as if it was gliding on an invisible path that only he could see.

Days later, the old eagle was flying again over the barnyard and was stunned by the sight of an eagle running around with the chicken. He surged down to the ground. As the other birds saw him they ran back to hide in the house. He descended in front of the other eagle before he reached the door.

“What are you doing?”, asked the old eagle.

“What do you mean?”, answered the young one.

“What are you doing running around with chicken?”.

“I am a chicken. These are my brothers and sisters. I grew up with them.”

“No you’re not. You’re an eagle. You belong in the sky, not on the ground.”

“No I am not. I am one of them. All I know is to do as they do, and to eat what they eat. I can’t even fly.”

“You can’t because you never tried. But you’re an eagle, just like me”.

“Even if what you say is true, I’ve lived all my life as a chicken. I am not an eagle anymore”.”

“It’s the heart of an eagle that matters, not the way he lived or ate… Come with me”

The eagle took another look at his friends hiding in the comfort of home. “Don’t listen to him!”, yelled one of the chicken. “He is tricking you”,” said another. “ If you go with him, you will die!”. “ Come back and be with us”…

But deep inside the eagle’s heart, a faint voice told him what he needed to do. He took one more gaze at the barnyard where he spend all his life playing with his friends, then turned around and followed the older eagle.

A moment later, the arrived at the cliff he used to visit sometimes with his friends. They stood next to each other on the edge looking at the mountains in the distance. Without a second of hesitation, the old eagle jumped off the edge, spread his wings and soared upward.

The young eagle looked down the cliff and trembled. He’d never flown before. May be he would die. May be he should go back.

“Don’t look down.”, the old eagle said “Look up at the sky. Aim toward the sun. Give it a bit of faith.”

The young eagle lifted his sight up, spread his wings and leaped…

Back at the barnyard, the chicken heard a triumphant cry that ascended to heaven. Their feather trembled and they looked at each other without exchanging a word. They know they will miss their brother a lot. They know he might visit some day and tell them how it felt to fly. And they will gather around to hear his stories about the lands he visited. But for the time being, they would keep doing what they did best: living as chicken.

Faith by Albert Einstein

Professor : You are a Christian, aren’t you, son ?

Student : Yes, sir.

Professor: So, you believe in GOD ?

Student : Absolutely, sir.

Professor : Is GOD good ?

Student : Sure.

Professor: Is GOD all powerful ?

Student : Yes.

Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to GOD to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD didn’t. How is this GOD good then? Hmm?

(Student was silent.)

Professor: You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, young fella. Is GOD good?

Student : Yes.

Professor: Is satan good ?

Student : No.

Professor: Where does satan come from ?

Student : From … GOD …

Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student : Yes.

Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And GOD did make everything. Correct?

Student : Yes.

Professor: So who created evil ?

(Student did not answer.)

Professor: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they?

Student : Yes, sir.

Professor: So, who created them ?

(Student had no answer.)

Professor: Science says you have 5 Senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son, have you ever seen GOD?

Student : No, sir.

Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard your GOD?

Student : No , sir.

Professor: Have you ever felt your GOD, tasted your GOD, smelt your GOD? Have you ever had any sensory perception of GOD for that matter?

Student : No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.

Professor: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student : Yes.

Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student : Nothing. I only have my faith.

Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has.

Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Professor: Yes.

Student : And is there such a thing as cold?

Professor: Yes.

Student : No, sir. There isn’t.

(The lecture theater became very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.

(There was pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.)

Student : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness?

Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it is, well you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?

Professor: So what is the point you are making, young man ?

Student : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Professor: Flawed ? Can you explain how?

Student : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good GOD and a bad GOD. You are viewing the concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.

Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Professor: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shook his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument was going.)

Student : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor. Are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?

(The class was in uproar.)

Student : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?

(The class broke out into laughter. )

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

(The room was silent. The Professor stared at the student, his face unfathomable.)

Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.

Student : That is it sir … Exactly ! The link between man & GOD is FAITH. That is all that keeps things alive and moving.

By the way, that student was EINSTEIN