Dear Brethren and Friends of Masonic Arts, please enjoy the beautiful spiritual writings, which were writen by Honorable Brother Leon Zeldis and recommended leonzeldismandelto us by our Ambassador to Japan Honorable Brother Janus Cegledy. 

ACTING 

If all the world’s a stage, where the hell is my prompter ?

                       

ACTION (see also REACTION) 

Waiting for the right time to do something is the surest way to do nothing.           

Acts speak louder than words, but sometimes I don’t understand the language.

           

ADVERTISING 

If advertisements had to be truthful, the profession would disappear.

           

ADVICE

Advice is what many give, few listen and none follow.           

Be the judge in a duel, the trainer in the army, the commentator in politics, the umpire in a game, the art critic and the professor in everything else.

           

AGE

Age is counted not in years but in fears.

           

AMBIGUITY

Avoid ambiguity, except in certain cases.

 

AMBITION

Ambition, like scratching, can never be satisfied.           

If you are poor and want to be rich, you are ambitious; if you are rich and want to make some more money, you are a greedy bastard.

                       

AMERICA

The English like to hunt foxes; Americans hunt witches. Since there are none to be found, they invent them, giving them different names each time.           

Americans are hated because they are so successful and so generous. Success provokes envy, and generosity breeds greed.  

 

ANALOGIES 

Analogies are misleading, like linking ants with elephants because they share some DNA.

             

ANARCHISTS 

Anarchists think that demolishing a house they can build a better one with the rubble.

 

ANXIETY

Whistling in the dark may not be advisable; it may attract predators.

 

ART

When art became divorced from beauty, the artist became a mechanic.

Mixing colors, like mixing words, if not done in the right proportions results in a muddy chaos.

 

ATHEISM 

Atheism is the religion of the morally challenged.

 

ATTENTION           

If you pay attention, what’s the currency?

           

ATTITUDE 

Small change has little value, both in attitudes and in money.

           

BEAUTY 

In many languages, what is beautiful is also good: Bello e Buono, Belle et Bon, Bello y Bueno. In Latin “pulcher” and in Hebrew “yaffe” mean both good and beautiful.

When art became divorced from beauty, the artist became a mechanic.

           

BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS

Nothing is an end in itself. Every end is the beginning of something else.

           

BOOKS 

Good books should be read two or three times, at 20-year intervals.

 

BORE

A bore

Is the man who talks more.

           

BUSINESS 

An ethical businessman is as rare as a panda, and has about the same

chances of survival.

 

CHANGE 

Small change has little value, both in attitudes and in money.

           

CHARACTER 

The sum total of a man is constant, the higher up he climbs, the smaller he becomes.

                       

CHARITY           

The highest form of charity is education.

                       

COMPETITION 

In a race, being the second is equivalent to being the last.

           

CONVICTIONS

Only convicts stick to their convictions.

           

DEATH 

Despite their infinite powers, gods die with surprising frequency.

 

DEFINITION 

To de-fine is to set limits, ends (fine). Therefore, God cannot be defined.

                       

EDUCATION

An educator is an architect of minds.           

Education is the highest form of charity.                       

Education means not telling somebody that his argument is wrong, rather telling that his argument opened the door to a wealth of other possibilities.

           

ENEMIES 

If an enemy offers you his hand, look well what’s he holding in the other one.                       

The flea would like nothing better than having a painless bite.

                       

FAME

What do Rudolf Christoph Euken and Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler have in common? Both won the Nobel Prize for Literature. What do Franz Kafka and Aldous Huxley have in common? They never did.

                       

FEAR

Old age is measured not in years but in fears.

           

FLATTERY 

Rare is the man who does not believe a flatterer, while claiming to despise him.

           

FREE WILL

God writes the score, but you are the conductor.

           

FRIENDS 

A good friend knows your weaknesses, but does not remind you of them.

 

FUTURE (see also TIME) 

The future is like the past, only worse.

           

GOD 

It is not the fact that the starry sky is beautiful that proves the existence of God, but the fact that we are capable of appreciating its beauty.                       

Even a simple thing like magnetism can only be observed through its effects. How, then, could we pretend to know God, if not through His effects, like the fact that we are able to distinguish between good and evil?

 

GRATITUDE 

Take nothing for granted, nobody owes you anything; so express your gratitude for everything you receive, also from your friends, even from your spouse.

           

GOOD AND EVIL 

There is no good or evil in nature, they are only applicable to the thoughts and actions of men,

                       

HEALTH 

            Bad thoughts are dangerous for your health.

 

HEAVEN 

If heaven is above, and hell is below, what’s in the middle? The world with a mixture of both.

 

IGNORANCE 

Knowledge is limited; ignorance, on the other hand, is boundless.

                       

INTELLIGENCE 

Intelligence is circular. The super intelligent and the super idiot often shake hands.

 

INTOLERANCE 

The root of intolerance is ignorance. What and whom you ignore, first you fear, then you hate.

           

INVENTIONS 

Every invention begets an improved version.

           

KNOWLEDGE 

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially when handling explosives.

           

JOURNALISTS

While the journalists races to meet his deadline, the writer’s deadline is his death.                       

The journalist serves uncooked food to his hungry readers.

                       

LIES 

Too many explanations hide a lie.

                        

LIFE

Have you noticed how different a piece of music can sound under different conductors? God writes the score, but we are the conductors.           

Many people spend their life waiting for the right moment to do something. It generally comes too late.

           

LONELINESS 

The sharpest loneliness is felt when you are among many people.

           

LOVE 

You can say you love somebody without words, with a kiss or a hug, with a wink or a laugh, a look of admiration or a sigh of contentment.           

What women love is to feel loved

What men love is to feel admired.           

Hug and kiss frequently your partner in life. Love is a fire; it may burn out at any time if not stoked. But never lose hope; it may be rekindled, albeit with great effort.           

Love is not a worn out feeling slowly fading into routine, but a marvelous beginning repeated again and again.           

Like fire, love needs continuous stocking.                       

Love should be examined with a magnifying glass; offences, with a telescope.

 

MAN

Man is the only animal who has regrets.

           

MANAGEMENT 

Treat your personnel like your machines: oil them frequently.           

The golden rule of management: find someone you can trust he’ll make mistakes, then appoint him as your junior assistant.

                       

MAPS

The map of the human mind has many “terra incognita” regions.
MARRIAGE

The secret of a good marriage is three things: love, mutual respect, and a joint bank account.           

Two pieces of furniture characterize a good marriage:  a good table to enjoy the food, and a good bed to enjoy the love. 

Not all unmarried men are bachelors. Some are masters, even doctors.

           

MARTYRS

Martyrdom is one of nature’s natural selection processes.

                       

MEANING

If you mean what you say, what does it mean when you say nothing?

 

MEDITATION

While meditating, don’t forget to wipe your nose.                       

If you break the silence, what are the broken pieces called?

           

MEN AND WOMEN

Men insist on being the master; women master by being insistent.           

What women love is to feel loved

What men love is to feel admired.

           

MIRACLES

Miracles happen all the time. We are just blind and don’t recognize them for what they are.

 

MOB

A mob is a wild beast.

           

MOVIES 

            Cinema is an industry of imbeciles, by imbeciles, for imbeciles.

                        (with excuses to Abraham Lincoln).

Nothing is wrong with movies that a few millions less could not cure.

Hollywood’s true name is Holloweed.

 

MURPHY’S LAWS

The tool you need to finish an urgent job is the one you lent to a neighbor who is currently abroad.

            

MUSIC 

God writes the score, but we are the conductors.

           

NEUTRALITY

Neutrons are not attractive.

 

NEWSPAPERS 

Newspapers are to books as a circus band is to a symphony orchestra.

                       

 

OLD AGE

Old age is measured not in years but in fears.           

Like paper, the soul withers, and turns dry, crackling and wrinkled.           

There are three problems with old age: bad memory is one, and there are two more.

 

OPINIONS

Without opinions there could be no art.

                       

OPPORTUNITY 

            Opportunity knocks only once, but what if it knocks you out?

                       

PAINTERS

Expressionist painters shout with the eyes.

                       

PESSIMISM 

            A pessimist sees every problem through a macroscope.

                       

PHILOSOHY 

Doing philosophy is like driving a car without a steering wheel.

           

POETRY 

The difference between prose and poetry is that prose conveys knowledge, while poetry conveys feelings.           

Writing a poem is like opening a present. We assume there is something nice inside, perhaps beautiful, but until we finish unwrapping it we never know.

Every poet is a mystic manqué.

Poetry is an asymptotic road to truth.

The art of the poet is to make a forest out of a few trees.

 

POPULAR WISDOM

Popular wisdom can be positive or negative. When negative, it’s called superstition.

           

PRAYER

God hears silent prayer loud and clear.

           

PREJUDICE 

Men treasure their prejudices and protect them against the truth.

           

PROMISES

Never trust a man who smiles while making a promise.

           

PSYCHOLOGY 

Everybody is a little bit mad, only in different ways.

 

RELIGION 

Religion demands skepticism to blossom, the same as a flower needs the sun. Too big a dose kills both.

                       

RESOLVE 

I decided that I must be more resolute. I’ll start tomorrow.

           

SCIENCE 

At very small and very large scales, science approaches religion.

           

SELF IMPROVEMENT 

Improving the world is beyond the powers of most men, but improving oneself anyone can do.

The key to self-improvement is self-respect. When you realize that you are the most important person in your life, you will try to make this a better person.

 

SILENCE

Silence and darkness bring up ominous thoughts.           

Silence, like space, is infinite, but like bodies in space, only sound gives it meaning,

 

SINCERITY           

There is sin in sincerity.

                       

SMILES 

Never trust a man who smiles while making a promise.           

A smile is like a flower, it gladdens the heart, but sometimes it’s poisoned.

 

SWORDS 

Like ships and buildings, swords have souls; that’s why they have names, like Excalibur and Tizona.

 

TACT

Learn to be tactful, all you foul-mouthed morons.

           

TEACHING 

Teaching is the best teacher.

           

TECHNOLOGY 

The next technological revolution will be invisible.

           

TELEVISION 

Soap operas wash out your brain. 

            Television: where a few words are worth a thousand pictures.

 

THOUGHT 

Thoughts are like fruit: consume them only when they are ripe.

Fruitful thought grows into action; otherwise it proves to have been barren.           

We live physically in the world, mentally in our minds. You don’t like living in a dirty home. Avoid, then, polluting your mind with dirty thoughts.

            Bad thoughts are dangerous for your health.

 

TIME 

The young count time in years; adults, in months, old men in days,  and then in hours.           

Time has two dimensions: the material one and the mental one.           

The present is an imaginary boundary between the dead past and the unborn future.   

To live looking at the clock stretches the hours and shortens life.

Memories are lifeboats in the shipwreck of time.

 

TRADITION

 

Tradition should act as a compass, not an anchor.           

We should act as a boatman; moving forward while looking back.

 

TRAVEL

Travel expands the mind and shrinks the wallet.

           

TRUTH 

Many truths are just opinions stated with great confidence.

           

WAR

If you look at it well, war is always raw.

           

WOMEN (See also MEN AND WOMEN)

What women love is to be loved.

Women like to buy shoes, because they are less expensive than jewels, and have the same effect on other women.

           

YOUTH

The youths count time in years; adults, in months, old men in days, and finally in hours.