The philosopher who cannot teach something valuable in a simple way to an ordinary man should retire. Perhaps in no other field is clarity a more necessary quality, and a more evident manifestation of mastery over the subject matter. There are many forgivable sins, and many defects that even scratch the thought of a philosopher; but from the moment that discourse, through him, makes the subject more confusing, the best he would do is to return quietly to his studies, if not abandon them forever and seek a new occupation.
Category: Notes
It Is Possible to Draw Parallels…
It is possible to draw parallels between coetaneous lives and identify, in the vast majority of cases, decisive periods that occurred at very close ages in which similar themes emerged. It is necessary to see and compare them over and over again. This evident and verifiable fact is perhaps the strongest argument of those who assert that there is a correlation between time and individual existences, especially since it is noted that many of the themes which stand out do not occur as a result of convention or something induced by the environment: one notices, over and over again, periods when genius seems to manifest, and periods when luck seems to decide. From the moment one acquires enough courage to assume it, one can no longer bear the absence of the why…
If Language Is Authentic, It Can Never Be Imitated
If language is authentic, it can never be imitated. But it happens that an authentic author never limits himself to language. This, by the way, is why translations sound so strange: because language is more than just words. The same idea is not the same in two languages, and a literal translation is almost always insufficient to translate it. So a translated work is always another, different from the original. Authentic language, therefore, is the personal vehicle of a personal expression; and even if one tries, it is impossible to copy this entirely individual character that remains impregnated, whether one likes it or not, in the lines of an author.
If a People Had No Distinctive Features
If a people had no distinctive features other than language, this would already be enough to give it an entirely original literature, even if it were limited to remaking what has already been done in other languages. That is to say: if the language is authentic, it can never be imitated, because there will always be something unique about it. But beyond this: the greatest literature will be that which encompasses, in its own language, the widest range of models and themes, and therefore it is more than convenient, but necessary, to rethink in one’s own language what has already been thought of in others, to recreate what has already been created, endowing it, through language, with authentically vernacular colors: this is the only way to build a vigorous literary tradition of universal value.