Admiration at their novelty heightens the value of your achievements, It is both useless and insipid to play with the cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object of general attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. Cautious silence is the holy of holies of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of; it only leaves room for criticism. And if it happens to fail, you are doubly unfortunate. Besides you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder and watch.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Keep Matters for a Time in Suspense
Admiration at their novelty heightens the value of your achievements, It is both useless and insipid to play with the cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object of general attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. Cautious silence is the holy of holies of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of; it only leaves room for criticism. And if it happens to fail, you are doubly unfortunate. Besides you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder and watch.
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9 comments:
"the holy of holies of worldly wisdom"
Hah!
"just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse", nah, I'm usuallying moaning during ordinary intercourse.
Hah Hah!
I'd agree that mystery is important though. Telling someone everything is a bore. Leaving a little to a person's imagintion is very attractive.
I like this guy's writings, it would be fun to make one up, like he was alive and writing about today, although he would still have to speak in this style. That would be funny, him talking about the environemnt, or the price of gas, or how hollywood celebs live or something. Speaking from the grave series?
Give it a try!
i would like to offer a slightly different and perhaps less self-important theory than this:
be yourself, be real, and do the best you know how to do.
it may not inspire "veneration", though.
and for a christian philosopher, his ideas sure aren't very much like those of jesus.
heightening admiration for your acheivements? inspiration veneration in others? yikes. pretty much polar opposite to the basic ideas of christian philosophy.
i have another theory: f**k impressing other people, put your head down, and work.
I was never very good at seeing how others see me.
this sounds like an academic's guide to flirting, that's right play hard to get baby, it works everytime.
Balthasar, you're so coy.
;)
ha! no doubt.
Ya, it is pretty self-important, but at its core, it is very much Christian, I just don't post those.
Hm, wonders what that says.
:)
And I also think that self-importance does not exhaust this quote of it's value.
There is something to be said here about how to be in the world:
Work hard, and be of good influence.
I would argue that that is the ultimate message here, regardless of whether that is the topic of this quote.
That said, this does apply as this is just a way of thinking about how to go and achieve that very principle: Work hard, and be of good influence.
Think what world this guy lived in too. To be socially meaningful, and here I mean specifically being of service, you had to play with the rulers, meaning that you had to hold the ears of Kings, whether good or bad.
In the modern sense, if we move beyond the very fact that we still have rulers, so the quote still fully applies, this approach to people is trying make sure that some good can be done, as power must be moved.
One decides to opt in, or opt out, meaning one decides how to move power, in their lives, and in others.
Power for good, power for evil, slippery slope too, but a reality nonetheless?
Maybe, could there be no power at all?
I'm not sure.
Is self-importance a myth?
Is it myth?
I'm not sure how this connects.
someone (derrida) says "we must conceive of power without the king".
but i guess until then, we're stuck with kings.
always, then, the endless eternal question: how to negotiate within that apparently unjust system, and still be a just person.
if such a thing is possible.
and also, what does it mean to be "just"?
aaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!
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