Wednesday 8 September 2010

Poem of the day: Cafe del Poeta, Valparaiso



"Don't expect things to change if we always do the same"

A crisis is the greatest blessing that can happen to a person or country because crisis brings progress.  Creativity is born from anguish as day is born of the dark night.  It is in crisis that ingenuity, discoveries and great strategies are born.  He who overcomes a crisis overcomes himself without being defeated.  He who attributes his crisis to his failures and shortcomings assaults his own talent and pays more respect to problems than solutions.

The true crisis is the crisis of incompetence.  The problem of people and countries is the laziness to find a way out, a solution.  Without crisis there are no challenges, without challenges life is a routine, a slow agony.  Without crisis there is no merit.  It is in crisis that the best of each of us blossoms because without crisis every wind is a caress.  To speak of crisis is to promote it and to keep quiet is to exalt conformity.  Instead of this let's work hard.  Once and for all let's get rid of the only threatening crisis;  the tragedy of not wanting to fight to overcome it.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

*  The translation from the Spanish is mine and I do not assure its accuracy.

2 comments:

  1. Does this mean that I need more crisis in my life...?

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  2. a brilliant translation Pete. what a talent. also an amazing insight- and something from which great art stems. the best art through history has always come from crisis situations- war time, revolution, mental anguish.
    keep the blogs coming :-)

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