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why i like ancient texts

   Wed, February 1, 2006 - 2:13 PM
"Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous. There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind. We owe it to a few writers of antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) that the people in the Middle Ages could slowly extricate themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more than half a millennium. Nothing is more needed to overcome the modernist's snobbishness. "

Albert Einstein



4 Comments

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Wed, February 1, 2006 - 2:34 PM
Indeed.....
....words of wisdom.

^____________^
Wed, February 1, 2006 - 6:16 PM
malarkey! everything you need to know is contained in the National Enquirer...
Wed, February 1, 2006 - 8:05 PM
what is the national enquirer? if it wasn't born bc, not worth reading
Wed, February 1, 2006 - 9:22 PM
well, let me rephrase this quote:
A muslim who reads only the Qur'an and at best contemporary tracts of famous mullahs, looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous. There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind. We owe it to a few writers of antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) -- and to muslims of another age -- that the european people in the Middle Ages could slowly extricate themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more than half a millennium. Nothing is more needed to overcome the modern muslim's snobbishness.