Words of Wisdom

(He said with tongue in cheek).

Today, I bought a book called "Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts & Funny Sayings" by Bob Phillips.
It's a collection of quotes and sayings. And right on the first page of the first chapter under the heading of "absence" I find these:

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder" (T.H. Bayly)
and
"Out of sight, out of mind" (Homer)

What can we expect of ourselves as a species if we hold these two contradictory bits of "wisdom" to be equally true?

Yet I cannot resist the urge to distill wisdom into pithy sayings myself. I was reflecting on Japanese culture and their attitude towards foreigners, especially Americans - brought on in part by the panel I attended in my brief visit to Arisia yesterday as well as watching Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex for most of the afternoon. And I thought about WW II. This led somehow to remembering Patton's famous advice to his men.
The end result of all of this was the following conclusion:

Throughout human history, it has always been easier to find those willing to die for their ideals than those willing to live up to them.

And what does that say about humanity?