Wise Words For A Fallen World

Here follows a translation of aphorisms penned by Leonardo Boff, Brazilian exponent of the Theology of Liberation and former Catholic priest.

It seems appropriate at the beginning of the year to offer some aphorisms, the fruit of reflection and everyday wisdom present in the cultural environment. We will list a few, understandable in themselves:

More important than knowing is never losing the ability to learn.

If everything in the universe is in genesis, then the longed-for paradise is not at the beginning but at the end.

We are whole, but not finished. We begin to be born and we are born slowly until we are born. It's when we die.

Only what is may die. The possible, which is not yet, remains to be realized beyond death.

We do not live to die. We die to be resurrected.

If you feel like an ordinary person, take comfort. God must have loved ordinary people very much to create such a large number, including you and me.

Don't go down already trodden paths. Otherwise you will never leave your footprints on the ground. If you want to go far,  walk slowly. Never stop or walk backwards.

Give thanks to God for stumbling, thus avoiding a fall.

Where there is no fear, there will also be no courage,which is necessary for life.

If you want to forget the many stones that block your path, think about the foundations of the house that you can build with them.

In the fight between the stone and the drop of water, the drop of water will always win, not because of its strength but because of its perseverance.

If you hold firm to the perspective of the goal, there can be no insurmountable obstacle.

Newness only arises on the condition that something has been left behind.

For those who search, there will always be a Star, like the one in Bethlehem, illuminating their path.

A ship is safe in port, but was built for greater things. 

Thousands of other lights can come from a single candle without its light diminishing.

If you want to climb a long ladder, don't look down: focus on each step.

For those who want to sing, there will always be a melody at your disposal in the air.

Only those who put themselves in the place of others will understand the other people well.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Be like the cicada, which to renew itself but must lose all of its external appearance.

Only those who know how to wait through a dark night will be happy at dawn.

No one will enter heaven if they do not first begin to build it here on earth.

Every boy wants to be a man. Every man wants to be king. Every king wants to be God. Only God wanted to be a child.

As human as Jesus, but God himself.

At the beginning of everything there is not the solitude of One but the communion of the Three: of the origin-less Origin, of the Supreme Word and of the sacred Union of everything with everything. They are so intertwined in the love that they unify, that is, they become One.