hum

Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

I am not easily frigthened. Not because I am brave but because I know that I am dealing with human beings, and that I must try as hard as I can to understand everything that anyone ever does. And that was the real import of this morning: not that a disgruntled young Gestapo officer yelled at me, but that I felt no indignation, rather a real compassion, and would have liked to ask, ‘Did you have a very unhappy childhood, has your girlfriend let you down?’ Yes, he looked harassed and driven, sullen and weak. I should have liked to start treating him there and then, for I know that pitiful young men like that are dangerous as soon as they are let loose on mankind.

Etty Hillesum

I once conducted an informal survey, posing the following question: “If you are using more words than somebody wants to hear, do you want that person to pretend to listen or to stop you?” Of the scores of people I approached, all but one expressed a preference to be stopped. Their answers gave me courage by convincing me that it is more considerate to interrupt people than to pretend to listen.

Alla Milano-Sanremo del 1946, Coppi, scalatore perfetto, scollina in solitudine sul Passo del Turchino e arriva con 14 minuti sul secondo. Niccolò Carosio annuncia: “Primo Fausto Coppi. In attesa degli altri, trasmettiamo musica da ballo”.

Aneddoti

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.

Plato

We found out that the executioners were given a countdown but that for some unexplained reason they had decided in advance that they would all fire at the penultimate number.

Five. Four. Three.

And on the count of two they opened fire.

Ed Pilkington

I’m trying to get Radiohead to do a cover because I think it’s one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.