“History repeats itself” is a true statement because it is based on the absolute human incapacity, attested by each generation, to pass on the learning of its experiences. That is why civilization is always on the verge of the same collapses and revolutions as before, hostage to the same mistakes, exploited by new versions of the same weapons, subject to the same schemes of domination, the same types driven by the same ambitions. A generation never learns from the past, and what it learns from the present will have to be learned from the present again and again by the next generations.
There Is No More Thankless Task Than to Teach…
There is no more thankless task than to teach someone who does not want to learn. Learning has to start from a desire, motivated in turn by the awareness of a need. Otherwise, the teacher and the student are frustrated. All teaching should be seen as an act of generosity and, consequently, as a stimulus to gratitude. Then we would have a teacher satisfied with the work and a student aware of the importance of education. In the future, the student could find in the teaching itself the repayment of the debt he had incurred, or, in other words, teach to express gratitude. On this cycle all true education depends, and from it we note that education is fundamentally a moral problem.
The Writer Is Lost If He Does Not Feel…
The writer is lost if he does not feel an irresistible attraction for the language, which compels him to study it even if he does not want to, in a practice whose abstinence manifests itself in deep discomfort. Whether this is predestination makes no difference. What is certain, however, is that he will not be able to bear the obstacles and frustrations of the profession if he does not feel himself evolving through prolonged study to infinity, only possible with a tolerance for letters that could best be defined as a passion. If he is chained to them and does not feel at ease, he must at least feel the characteristic satisfaction of fulfilling a duty.
If Anything Has Been Achieved…
If anything has been achieved by the weakening of religion in the West, it has been the weakening of social bonds at the most basic level. The biblical neighbor has become more than ever a stranger, and the feeling that permeated or should permeate a community, whatever it may be, has become a generalized and absolute distrust. A common bond was broken without replacing it, and the result could only be segregation. From this, one can only conclude that the world has become an even more hostile place.