The Book of Life

The same principle applies to national behaviour. If we consider another nation inferior, our entire perspective becomes distorted. We begin to see its virtues as flaws, misjudge its strength, and end up clashing with it unnecessarily, when wisdom would have required restraint. To underestimate others is, in the end, to underestimate oneself. The final outcome of belittling others is that one becomes small and insignificant in others’ eyes. FOCUS OF MIND C harles Darwin (1809–1882) is one of the most famous thinkers of modern times. Although the writer of these lines does not agree with his theory, it is still true that no other thinker has shaped modern thought as much as Darwin. Darwin earned his extraordinary place through extraordinary effort. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (1984) describes him like this: “All his mental energy was focused on his subject, and that was why poetry, pictures, and music ceased in his mature life to afford him the pleasure that they had given him in his earlier days.” (Vol. 5, p. 495) Darwin devoted all his mental focus to his field of study; as a result, poetry, art, and music no longer brought him the joy they once did.