Navigator Tales

You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time. [Abraham Lincoln]

When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people. [Mark Twain]

Genius does what it must, talent what it can. [With Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton]

Some Words

Most people think one should communicate better than old proverbs. Yet it often shows up that expert teachings are boiled down to something like proverbs. In such cases, sayings sum up a small heap of experience in a few words, by more or less artistic summaries.

In other cases, hard-won experiences of centuries are rounded up in fit proverbs. Such proverbs may give young ears tenets that help a bit. You never know.

Indian teachings abound in tenets that are boiled down considerably in the first place. They are called sutras (thought-threads) in Sanskrit, and suttas (discourses, verses, and so on) in the related Pali language. Ancient sutras are so boiled-down that they call for commentaries - just as many proverbs need too, to seem understandable and plausible.

If we want to communicate better and think our own thoughts and express them well, then the parrot, beautiful as it is, is not quite the ideal. Those who persevere may improve. They may enlarge their influence too. Efforts can finally pay.

A palpable need to communicate better is often the daughter of feeling misunderstood.