A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE Quotes

“Hatred is the mask of the inept.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“We say that a human being is a person and a distinctive, fixed self with a name and a life. He has an identity. But what is this self really made of, except from the basic elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, phosphorus etc. and their subatomic particles? If a person is a specific, static, unchanged entity and existence, then what if an accident or a disease completely alters his body features? What if fear or madness changes his thoughts and perceptions? If dementia takes away his memories, or if drugs alter his emotions? And what if life circumstances, good or bad luck, modify his motives, his plans and his desires? Is it still the person we say he is? Or is selfhood a ghost, a useful fiction of the brain? An ever-shifting kaleidoscope of thoughts, feelings and perceptions? Flashes of hopes and desires? A bundle of alternating opinions and ideologies, of conflicting instincts and urges? If we take away all these from him, what would be left behind? If every drop of the ocean evaporates, is not the whole ocean gone? The immutable selfhood is a very old illusion and the last of illusions we ‘re going to abandon; if we ever will…”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“Before you think you are surrounded by idiots, make sure that you don’t suffer from narcissism.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“When you stay silent, you listen. When you listen, you learn. When you learn, you know. When you know, you can understand. And when you understand, you may forgive.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“We are perhaps the funniest shattered pieces of the ongoing cosmic explosion; and the biggest troublemakers!”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“Today is the day. In fact, today is always the day, my friends!”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“Another good thing that philosophy offers us is the invigorating company of the great dead of the past, while – at the same time – it keeps us away from the soulless and trifling affairs of the alive ones.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“In a world of ceaseless labor, we are components of the Engine. Eternally struggling, pushing a Sisyphean Boulder in vain. Illusions are the keys that unlock the Doors and keep us moving on.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“A good proverb is often the marriage of a Truth to an Enchantment, where Humor is the groomsman and Irony the priest.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“The naive thinks that all wisdom lies within and no one can teach him. The wise became wise, because he accepted his nescience and opened his eyes to see the Wisdom and the Beauty around him.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“Coming face to face with Ugliness can be a misfortune or a blessing. We can imitate it and be one with it; or we can feel repugnance and appreciate the Beauty once and for all!”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“Of course, 1+1 makes 2 and blue to yellow gives green. But if we forget for a while the abstract knowledge or the laws of nature, and focus on the “knowledge” of particular situations, events, persons etc., then we can observe that it is almost never: “I know”; it is practically always: “I believe”.
Humans and all the intelligent creatures of this world operate through beliefs, more or less justified, more or less true, more or less convincing. Because the biological apparatus of one hundred percent accuracy has not yet been “invented” in nature. And it never will.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“The day you’ll start craving for a savior to deliver you is the day you’ll welcome any tyrant into your soul. Freedom is the game of the unsaved and the unsavable.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“Idol worship” is so deeply ingrained in the human brain synapses that it would be almost impossible to be bereft of it. And in absence of an external icon we are always going to look for it inside us. In fact, in many regions of the world this process is already in progress resulting in the pandemic of “self-admiration” and “self-deification” of our modern times.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“In Love we fall and in God we trust. The two have something special in common: people adore both conditions despite their irrationality or, to be more precise, because of their irrationality. For what is irrational keeps us often effectively in distance from the pure knowledge and perception of things. A purity that, exactly as pure heroin, can put us in grave danger, especially in high doses.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“I say “I am free”, but what I really mean is “I feel free”;
I say “I am unfortunate”, but what I really mean is “I feel unfortunate”;
I say “I am powerful”, but what I really mean is “I feel powerful”;
I say “the World” , but what I really mean is “my world within the World”.
What “I am” will always be a mystery to me.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“Many ask: “Why are we so insincere, why are we so hypocrites?”. Well, it is because this is how human nature works. If there was a time and a place where human beings were 100% of the time honest, who always said what they had in mind and who didn’t care to cover their shortcomings by displaying a better persona than the “real” one, it is long since gone, wiped out from the relentless force of natural selection.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“A good deed has to do with the results, altruism with the intentions. The good deed is, of course, what matters for the person in need or for society. After all pure altruism is rare and without a kind of benefit for the benefactor – even if that is just a pleasant feeling – charity would be almost impossible.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms

“Death may be seen as a generous gift that is offered to us as a reward for our willingness to endure life and to play the game until the end. And if it’s true that after death there is only death, non-existence, that would be the holiest of all the blessings!”
― Giannis Delimitsos, A PHILOSOPHICAL KALEIDOSCOPE: Thoughts, Contemplations, Aphorisms