TALKING ABOU EVIL

 

                TALKING ABOU EVIL

            It is good to talk about evil but not to condemn it outright. In fact, there is no perfect and changeless definition of evil. According to dictionaries evil is morally bad and cruel. It has a harmful effect on people. It is connected with the devil who said: It is better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.

            Evil is also defined as: Profound immorality, wickedness, and anything that causes deliberate harm, suffering, or destruction to others.

            In some religions evils are the antonyms of virtues and are known as vices. They are also known as deadly sins. Some of them are : pride, greed, lust, gluttony, anger, and laziness.

            Evil is often regarded as : unlucky, unfortunate, disastrous, catastrophic, ruinous, and woeful.

            Some actions have double interpretations. For example, war is both good and evil. Overwork is beneficial as well as harmful.

            Moreover, nothing is virtuous or vicious forever. What was evil in the past may be good in the present. Dowry was a blessing in India not long ago but today it is considered as an undesirable custom.

            Evil does not seem to be ephemeral even in God’s legislature. Had it been so, there would not have been both heaven and hell.

            Also look at this proverb: One man’s nectar is another man’s poison.  Drinking is good for some but bad for many.

            Here are some famous  quotes:

*Hear one side and you will be in the dark; hear both sides, and all will be clear.

*Even in evil, that dark cloud that hangs over creation, we discern rays of light and hope, and gradually come to see in suffering and temptation, proofs and instruments of the sublimest purposes of wisdom and love.   

*The first lesson of history, is, that evil is good.

*Good has but one enemy, the evil; but the evil has two enemies, the good and itself.

*There is nothing truly evil, but what is within us; the rest is either natural or accidental.

*It is a great evil not to be able to bear an evil.

*The lives of the best of us are spent in choosing between evils.

                        The English poet , playwright, and actor  William Shakespeare (1564-1616) said: The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.  

                        Finally, look at this eternal fact. We live in a world of dualities. If there is life, there is also death; if there is day, there is also night; if there is joy,  there is also sorrow.

                        Also, remember the natural fact  that every cloud has a silver lining.

                                                                        ******

G.R.Kanwal

20 October 2026

 

MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS

 

                MISCELLANEOUS       THOUGHTS

1.    Every man is a volume if you know how to read him.

2.    A house without books is like a room without windows

3.    The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.

4.    He who prays as he ought, will endeavour to live as he prays.

5.    Delays have dangerous ends.

6.    Delicacy is to the mind what fragrance is to the fruit.

7.    Doubt is brother devil to despair.

8.    The early morning has gold in its mouth.

9.    The back door robs the house.

10.Let the end try the man.

11. Kites rise against, not with the wind.

12. None but cowards liie.

13. Faith is like love: it cannot be forced.

14. Falsehoods not only disagree with truths, but usually quarrel among themselves.

15. A mask of gold hides all deformities.

16. Gravity is the body’s wisdom to conceal the mind.

17. Habit is ten times nature.

18.  Help  thyself, and God will help thee.

19. Ideas control the world.

20.  An impure man is every good man’s enemy.

21. Knowledge is but folly unless it is guided by grace.

22. Laws can discover sin , but not remove it.

23. Days of respite are golden days.

24. One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie.

25. Life is divided into three terms –that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better for the future.

                                           *******

G. R. Kanwal

19 October 2026

 

 

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ON OLD AGE AND LIFE

 

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ON OLD AGE AND LIFE

            The English poet, playwright and actor William Sakespeare was born on 23 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616.  He wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and some poems like Venus and Adonis (1593), The Rape of Lucrece (1594), A Lover’s Complaint and he Phoenix and Turtle. His four most famous plas are Hamlet, Macbet, King Lear and Othello.

               On the whole, Shakespeare is as famous today as he ever before was;  and he can be rightly regarded as : The Universal Poet Of Mankind’.

                The extracts given below are taken from his tragic play Macbeth first performed in 1606.

                        (A). ON OLD AGE

I have liv’d long enough : my way of life

Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf ;

And that which should accompany old age,

As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have ; but, in teir stead,

Curses, not loud but deep,mouth-honour, breath,

Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.

                                                            ---Act 5, Sc.3.

                                    ------

                        (B) REFLECTIONS ON LIFE

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour  upon the stage,

And then is heard no more ; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

                                                ---Act 5, Sc.4.

G.R.Kanwal

18 October 2026

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE SAID

 

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE SAID

            William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor. He was born on 23 April 1564 and passed away on the same date in 1616. He wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and several long poems. He has added to the world’s literature an immortal thought on more than 330 subjects, and has been deservedly called ‘A Poet Of Mankind’.

                Here are some of his great thoughts.

1.     Well, whiles I am a beggar; I will rail and say there is no sin but to be rich; and being rich, my virtue then shall be to say there is no vice but beggary,---King John, Ac 2, Sc.4.

2.     Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.---As You Like It, Act 2, Sc.7.

3.     What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.----Hamlet, Act 4, Sc.4.

4.     The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues.---All’s Well That End Well, Act 4,  Sc.3.

5.     Holy men at their death have good inspirations.---Merchant of  Venice, Act 1, Sc.2.

6.     A dream itself is but a shadow.---Hamley, Act 2, Sc,2.

7.     Lust is a foul appetite! ---Rape of Lucrece, Line 545.

8.     Time suppresseth wrongs.---Henry VI (3^rd part), Act e, Sc.3.

9.     Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.---Twelfth Night, Act , Sc.4.

10.                Let your own discretion be your tutor.---Hamlet, Act 3, Sc.2.

11.               Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.---Sonnet CLIV.

12.               Memory is th warder of the brain! Macbeth, Act 1, Sc,7.

13.               No legacy is so rich as honesty. ---All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 3, Sc.4.

14.                All offences, my lord, come from the heart.----Henry V, Act 4, Sc.8.

15.               Neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy. ---Measure for Measure, Act 2, Sc.2.

                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

17 October 2026

 

 

A FABLE OF AESOP

 

                A FABLE OF AESOP

                        A fable is defined as: a short fictional story that teaches an eternal life lesson or a moral. Its characters  are mostly animals possessing human wisdom.  

                        Aesop (c.620-564 BCE) was an ancient Greek fabulist and story teller. There are many fables attributed to him. They have been translated into several languages of the world. The wisdom presented by them is everlasting.

            Some of Aesop’s  famous fables are :

            Sour Grapes, Dead Men Tell No Tales, Look Before You Leap, Tit For Tat, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Fox and the Grapes, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and Breach of Promise.

                        The title of the fable which is quoted below is: The Punishment Of Selfishness”. It is translated into English by Stanley Alexander Handford (1898-1978) who was a British classicist.

                        The full text of the aforesaid fable  follows.

            “A horse and an ass were on a journey with their master. ‘Take a share of my load,’ said the ass to the horse, ‘if you want to save my life.’

            “But the horse would not, and the ass, worn out with fatigue, fell down and died.”

            “Their master then put the whole load on the horse’s back, and the ass’s hide into the bargain. The horse began to groan and set up a piteous lament. ‘Alas,’ he cried, ‘what misery have I let myself in for! I would not take a light load, and now look at me: I have to carry everything, hide and all.”

The moral of this fable is that the strong should help the weak, so shall the lives of both be preserved.

                                                            ******

G.R. Kanwal

16 October 2026

 

 

ADVICE TO A SON

                    ADVICE TO A SON

            ‘ADVICE TO A SON’ is an extract from a tragic play known as HAMLET. It was written by the English playwright, poet and actor William Shakespeare who was born on 23 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616. 

            He is still regarded as one of  the greatest writers in English literature. He wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and 3 long narrative poems besides a few other verses.

            None of his plays has become obsolete till today.

            The advice given in the above- mentioned extract from Hamlet , Act I, Sc. 3  is eternally true. Read it, remember it, and adopt it because It is replete with everlasting  practical wisdom.

            Here is the full text:                      

           

            ADVICE TO A SON

           

            “Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion’d thought his act,

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;

 

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel ;

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade.

 

Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,

Bear’t that th’ opposed may beware of thee.

 

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;

 

Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.

 

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express’d in fancy, rich, not gaudy;

For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

And they in France of the best rank and station

Are most select and generous, chief in that.        

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be ;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

 

This above all : to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

                                    ********

 

G. R. Kanwal

15 October 2026

                                                                                               

TWENTYFIVE READABLE THOUGHTS

 

         

                   TWENTYFIVE READABLE THOUGHTS

1.     Friends can become foes and foes can become friends.

2.     Never use bad language even against your enemies.

3.     Big progress is the child of small steps.

4.     Discipline is the bridge between what we are and what we hope to be.

5.     Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible.

6.     Today’s dreams are tomorrow’s realities.

7.     Cowards die many a time in their life.

8.     Success which begins with failure seldom ends with it.

9.     Money opens the doors which have remained closed for a long time.

10.                         Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

11.                          Where there is much light, the shadow is deep.

12.                         Self-caused pain needs self-made remedy.

13.                         Gratitude to God should be perpetual.

14.                         Hunger is the best sauce.

15.                         No legacy is so rich as honesty.

16.                         Be your own true friend.

17.                         Ideas don’t die soon.

18.                         Imagination is the eye of the soul.

19.                         The future is uncertain.

20.                         Science corrects the old deeds.

21.                         Even those who have eyes act as if they were blind.

22.                         Happiness is an occasional episode in the general drama of pain.

23.                        Love breeds love.

24.                         Hatred is a killer.

25.                         Knowledge is boundless, so is ignorance.

                                                ******

 

G.R. Kanwal

14 October 2026