Lessons of a century of life

In order for a person to enjoy a good old age, he must preserve the curiosity of childhood, the aspirations of youth, and the responsibilities of maturity, and he must try, during his old age, to extract the experience of previous ages. I will never cease to notice what is harsh, stubborn, and merciless in humanity, nor what is frightening in life, and I am no less capable of noticing what is noble, generous, and kind in humanity, and what enchanting and astonishing matters life contains. We are often forced to face the following ethical contradiction: respecting every human person and not insulting what is sacred to him, while at the same time practicing a critical spirit driven by disrespect for imposed beliefs as sacred beliefs. Self-criticism is a fundamental psychological protection. We should not be realistic in the trivial sense (adapting to the immediate), nor unreasonably unrealistic (escaping the constraints of reality), but we should be realistic in the complex sense: meaning that we recognize the uncertainty surrounding reality, and that we know there is still an unseen possibility. The art that attributes to others words they never said, ideas they never thought of, and diminishes the value of their person in the worst ways, I say: this art has reached its peak.