In Praise of Wisdom

310 Pages·1943·8.148 MB·English

by  Jacob Klatzkin, A. Ragelson, Abraham Regelson

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IN
PRAISE
OF
WISDOM
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Jacob Klatzkin
** * C H ® *
Translated from the Hebrew by A. Ragelson
Copyright 1943 by L. B. Pischer Publishing Corp.
Manufactured in the United States of America
American Book-Stratford Press, Inc., New York, N. Y.
Designed by Stefan Salter
TO WILLIAM ROTH

CONTENTS
*
PAGE
JFE MICROSCOP ED 17
Common things 19
To each generation its laugh 20
A measure of height 20
Signposts of development 21
The sublimation of servitude 22
The rebirth of desire 23
Smooth talk 24
Living with awareness 24
Seeing which is knowing 25
The power of affirmation 25
The rule and the exception 27
Truth humbles 28
The meaning of shame 29
Uniqueness and unity 30
The pathos of distance 33
Speech between souls 33
Our lost soul 34
The right of the mentally enslaved 35
Unconscious faith 36
A trifling error 37
Deceptive arithmetic 38
Cults of pleasure and pain 39
Being and non-being 40
Holiness and silence 40
ר
The other person 41
The satisfaction of being free 42
The absolute of desire 42
Unconscious vengeance 42
A miserable superiority 43
A guarantor who needs a guarantor 44
Unawares 45
Orphan thought 46
Veiled thought 47
Leaping thought 49
Kiss vs. bite 51
Recurrent rhyme 51
Sieve thought 54
Thinking in public 54
System and school 55
Three dimensions 56
Others’ wealth 56
Creeping thoughts 57
Thought harvest 57
Soul’s gravity 58
Boastful veil 59
Hunger of the rootless 60
Gifts to the poor 61
Language matings 61
Bashful words 62
Symbol and expression 62
The virtue of a fault 64
Thought’s dramatics 65
Shades of the public 67
Vestigial 68
Weak ־foundations 68
Satiety 69
Wherein system is weak 69
Mental virtuosity 70
Thought’s cruelty 70
The responsibility of ideas 71
Spirit’s danger 71
The nature of meditation 72
A difficult union 72
Too much which is too little 73
The uses of metaphor 73
Backbone of expression 74
Content in music 74
Melody and harmony 75
'Lnternality externalized 76
The rights of genius 76
Authors' company 77
Intentional obscurity 77
Atmosphere of personality 78
Oral literature 78
Inverted order 80
Literary cosmetics 80
Five categories 81
Multum in parvo 82
Writer’s I.O.U. 82
Professional ethics 82
In bondage to language 83
Personality: Its power of resistance 84
The know-it-all 84
Parasites of spirit 85
Speaker and journalist 86
The sense of interrogation 87
The mystery and the deed 87
A shield against ambition 88
Categories of the wise 88
Ado for ado’s sake 89
The need to admire 89
Diligence due to laziness 90
Under cover of half-and-half 90
The habitat of morality 91
The reward of penitence 91
A measure for love 91
True loving-kindness 92
The sense of time 92
Damage to thought 93
Double ego 94
Something out of nothing 94
Training for capacity 94
suggestion for scholars 95
Punishing the guiltless 95
Liar and gunman 96
The absolute within the relative 96
The future within the present 96
Unreliable witness 97
The moralist 97
What might have been 98
Intellectual honesty (A word on Lenin) 98
Creative artificiality (The Palestine experiment) 100
The generous and the miserly 104
Thought’s immunity 106
CONTENTS 11
PAGE
Equality as a basis for inequality 106
Beyond good and evil 107
Destructive arithmetic 107
Slaves’ gratitude 108
A fence to keep out evil 109
Self-given gifts 109
Unconscious lies 110
The advantages of exile 111
Beyond man 112
Negative standard 112
Pains of atonement 113
Deep calls unto deep 114
Accident which becomes necessity 114
The immodesty of the superficial 114
Truth—proud and humble 115
Fear of simplicity 115
The externality within 115
Laws of heaven and laws of morality 117
Baseless questions 119
The humility of the sublime 120
Climate-zone of intellect 121
The common origin of two extremes 122
A glimpse into non-being 123
The judge 125
PSYCHOLOGICAL ESSAYS 127
On great men 129
On writers 151
Verbalism 177
Preachers and speakers 182
Industriousness and virtuosity 186
The power of memory 194
The power of presence 202
The power of a banner 204
Courage for the sake of courage 207
Applause and its kin 209
How superstitions thrive 211
The value of revolutions 216
Categories of faith 219
Habit and dullness 223
Modesty 226
On the seeking of honor 228
Self-slaying publicity 231
The desire for self-importance 233
Ingratitude 235
Cleverness 237
Experience for ulterior motives 245
Made for success 247
In praise of idleness 252
The advantage of stuttering 256
Public catalysts 259
The need for expression 260
Ladder of expression 263
Revery and thought 264
Form and content 266
From the complex to the simple 269
Unity and system 271
The dangers of interpretation 274
Cruelty of the exalted 278