'Mutatis mutandis'

 

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

W. Somerset Maugham, 1954 - “Mr. Maugham himself”

Não somos a mesma pessoa de um ano para o outro. Nem aqueles que amamos. Será uma questão de sorte se nós, mudando, continuarmos a amar uma pessoa mudada.

W. Somerset Maugham, 1954 - "Mr. Maugham himself"

Photo: Legnano, Milano (Itália) - Setembro 2020

Summer

Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds. Regina Brett
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/summer

 

Cause a little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about.
John Mayer


Um bocadinho de verão é o que dá sentido ao ano inteiro.

John Mayer


Photo: Praia da Figueirinha, Setúbal - Portugal

Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds. Regina Brett
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/summer

Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds. Regina Brett
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/summer

Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds. Regina Brett
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/summer

Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds. Regina Brett
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/summer

Feb 14th

All we know about love is that love is all that exists.

Emily Dickinson

Tudo o que sabemos sobre o amor é que o amor é tudo o que existe.

Emily Dickinson

Braveness

Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.

Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661

Alguns foram tidos como valentes porque tiveram medo de fugir.

Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661

Philadelphia

There is no surer method of evading the world than by following Art, and no surer method of linking oneself to it than by Art.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 - 1832

Photo: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA - April 2008

Dolphins

The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.

Abraham Lincoln 1809 - 1865, 16th President of the USA

A melhor coisa acerca do futuro é que vem um dia de cada vez.

Abraham Lincoln 1809 - 1865, 16º Presidente dos EUA

Photo: The Dolphin Show at Lisbon Zoo, May 2010

Deadly

For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Rudyard Kipling 1865-1936, Literature Nobel 1907 in 'The Female of the Species'

Em todas as espécies, a fêmea é mais mortífera do que o macho.

Rudyard Kipling 1865-1936, Nobel da Literatura 1907 in 'The Female of the Species'

Photo: my aquarium in 2006 with a couple of Apistogramma trifasciata and guppy 'endlers'

The way

Our own distinction of right and wrong is founded too much upon the immediate convenience of the community, and does not inquire sufficiently deeply into the ultimate effect.

Arthur Conan Doyle 1859-1930, in 'The Stark Munro Letters'

A nossa noção de certo e errado é muito dependente da visão imediata da sociedade e não tem em conta a sua consequência a longo prazo.

Arthur Conan Doyle 1859-1930, in 'The Stark Munro Letters'

Photo: my garden pond in 2008 with a female Gymnogeophagus meridionalis taking care of a school of newborn offspring

Wishes

They told us not to wish in the first place, not to aspire, not to try; to be quiet, to play nice, to shoot low and aspire not at all. They are always wrong. Follow your dreams. Make your wishes. Create the future. And above all, believe in yourself.

Joseph Michael Straczynski, 1954-

Photo: Altura beach as seen from 'Eurotel Altura', Algarve - Portugal

Lotus

It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is: one grows out of people and the only thing is to face it.

W. Somerset Maugham - 'Cakes and Ale or The Skeleton in the Cupboard' (1930)

Não vale a pena lutar para manter velhas amizades. É doloroso para ambos os lados. O facto é que as pessoas vão-se afastando e a única solução é aceitar isso.

W. Somerset Maugham - 'Destino de um Homem' (1930)

Photo: My garden pond during summer, lotus flower surrounded by C. auratus, C. facetum, and M. opercularis

Mermaid

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

Aristotle, B.C. 384–322

Em todas as coisas da natureza há algo de maravilhoso.

Aristóteles, 384-322 A.C.

Photo: Mermaid Garden - Coimbra, Portugal (Sep 2008)

U.C.

No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.

Jack Kerouac 1922-1969, american novelist in 'Lonesome Traveler' (1960)

Nenhum homem devia passar pela vida sem experimentar pelo menos uma vez a saudável e até aborrecida solidão.

Jack Kerouac 1922-1969, escritor americano

Photo: University of Coimbra, August 2008

Squirrel

Life wouldn't be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst I find something always happens.

W. Somerset Maugham, "Of Human Bondage" 1915, ch. 66

A vida não valeria a pena ser vivida se eu me preocupasse com o futuro tanto como com o presente. Quando as coisas estão muito más, acontece sempre alguma coisa que vale a pena.

W. Somerset Maugham, "Servidão Humana" 1915, cap. 66

Photo: squirrel being feeded from hand - Central Park, New York City, NY - USA, 2008

Incident

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 19th-century American novelist and short story writer

Photo: feeding time at 'Oceanário de Lisboa', Lisboa - Portugal

Ria

I see it all perfectly, there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both.

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, 1813-1855, danish philosopher and theologian

Photo: Ria de Aveiro in August - Portugal

Paradise

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring — it was peace.

Milan Kundera, Franco-Czech novelist, 1929-2023

Os cães são a nossa ligação ao paraíso. Eles não conhecem a maldade, a inveja ou o descontentamento. Sentar-se com um cão ao pé de uma colina numa linda tarde, é voltar ao Éden onde ficar sem fazer nada não era tédio, era paz.

Milan Kundera, Franco-Czech novelist, 1929-2023

Photo: a one year old Siberian Husky

Inspiration

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with their friendship.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, american philosopher, essayist, and poet

Cicero

Nature herself makes the wise man rich.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106BC-43BC

Picture: Leonardo da Vinci's "Study of flowers" (1480-1481) - Venice, Galleria dell’Accademia

Neighbour

Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.

Clive Staples Lewis

Picture: Claude Monet’s Autumn Effect at Argenteuil, 1873

Jane Austen

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

Letter to her sister Cassandra, 1798

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

Pride and Prejudice, 1813

by Jane Austen, 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817

G. Steinem

In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she's a feminist or a masochist.

Gloria Steinem

Picture: TIME magazine cover, March 09 1992

MacArthur

Solitude is not in the oceans, but in the cities.

Ellen MacArthur, sailed into the record books in February 2001 by becoming the youngest person and fastest woman to sail around the world alone.

A solidão não encontro no oceano, está nas cidades.

Ellen MacArthur, velejadora recordista da volta ao mundo na versão solitária em 2001

Nada até ao fim

"Nunca Nada Até ao Fim" 

cartoon de Miguel em "Histórias de Amor" - Revista Pública, 5/01

(clique para ampliar)

Relativizar

José Lamego, em entrevista ao DNa do último dia 7/10/2005, depois de chegar do Iraque onde esteve debaixo de fogo:

“O que é que retirou para a sua vida dessa passagem por Bagdade?"

'Olhe, quer uma análise muito existencialista? Às vezes digo aos meus amigos que me aparecem com problemas existenciais que as pessoas, quando têm condições de saúde e de estabilidade mínimas, não têm direito a serem infelizes.'

Foto: uma das 100 imagens do século XX para a revista LIFE, no contexto da fome que dizimou o Uganda e outros países africanos devido à seca, 1980

Aquariofilia

Sobre a Aquariofilia:

Sejamos claros: isto não é um hobby relaxante, que nos proporciona horas e horas de prazer, mas antes uma ocupação a tempo inteiro.

Porque é que insisto nisto? Às vezes, quando chego a casa depois de um daqueles dias que nos inspiram instintos homicidas, olho paro os meus aquários, respiro fundo e posso jurar que estou a mergulhar num recife de coral ou num recanto perdido do Amazonas.

Pedro Sousa Tavares, DN de 30 Julho 2005

Imagem: 'Lake Thun', Ferdinand Hodler - Museum d'art et d'histoire Geneve

Shankly

Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football.

Albert Camus, 1913-1960

O conhecimento da alma humana passa por um campo de futebol.

Albert Camus, 1913-1960