Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.
— Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (via sendasky)
(Source: winterkristall)
View Larger “When my husband was dying, I said: ‘Moe, how am I supposed to live without you?’ He told me: ‘Take the love you have for me and spread it around.’”
‘You, hear me! Give this fire to that old man. Pull the black worm off the bark and give it to the mother. And no spitting in the ashes!’
It’s an odd little speech. But if you went back 15,000 years and spoke these words to hunter-gatherers in Asia in any one of hundreds of modern languages, there is a chance they would understand at least some of what you were saying.
That’s because all of the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the four sentences are words that have descended largely unchanged from a language that died out as the glaciers retreated at the end of the last Ice Age. Those few words mean the same thing, and sound almost the same, as they did then.
The traditional view is that words can’t survive for more than 8,000 to 9,000 years. Evolution, linguistic “weathering” and the adoption of replacements from other languages eventually drive ancient words to extinction, just like the dinosaurs of the Jurassic era.
A new study, however, suggests that’s not always true.
A team of researchers has come up with a list of two dozen “ultraconserved words” that have survived 150 centuries. It includes some predictable entries: “mother,” “not,” “what,” “to hear” and “man.” It also contains surprises: “to flow,” “ashes” and “worm.”
The existence of the long-lived words suggests there was a “proto-Eurasiatic” language that was the common ancestor to about 700 contemporary languages that are the native tongues of more than half the world’s people.
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The Washington Post, “Linguists Identify 15,000-Year-Old ‘Ultraconserved’ Words.”
Amazing.
(via inothernews)
I can get my head turned by a good-looking guy as much as the next girl. But sexy doesn’t impress me. Smart impresses me, strength of character impresses me. But most of all, I am impressed by kindness. Kindness, I think, comes from learning hard lessons well, from falling and picking yourself up. It comes from surviving failure and loss. It implies an understanding of the human condition, forgives its many flaws and quirks. When I see that in someone, it fills me with admiration.
— Lisa Unger, Beautiful Lies (via creatingaquietmind)
(Source: simply-quotes)
In a way, the best education you can get is just talking with people who are really smart and interested in things, and you can get that for the cost of lunch.
I’m starting to believe—and I can feel it in my gut, my soul, and my heart—that … elephants have it all figured out.
I have no idea when this video was recorded, but it is indeed brilliant.
View Larger ‘tsundoku’ - the Japanese word for buying books & not reading them, leaving them to pile up.
Along your pathway of life you will observe that you are not the only traveler. There are others who need your help. There are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save.
— Thomas S. Monson (via creatingaquietmind)
(Source: the-healing-nest)
