Read, Listen, Look, but above all, Think If the great inventions or findings, like fire, the wheel or the lever happened before man was historically capable of writting, it is also unquestionable that development was, without any doubt, faster from the moment when it was possible to register inteligence in writting, when knowledge could be transmitted with more credibility than by spoken word, when a library of any kind was the testament of the past and the foundation for the future. The archives followed the books, for lighter ...; and millions of pages of divagation or human emotion that looked even lighter, or less enduring, were left out of libraries or archives. By writting or reading, we come together beyond time and space, and our limited arms embrace the world; the richness of others makes us rich. Read. Millions of men in the present world, however, are incapacitated to write and read, much less because of the insuficiency of methods and means, than the lack of incentive to rise above their harsh quotidian, and the will of those that have the power to make their real brothers become more dependable on themselves, and less dependable of external, and almost always deceitful salvations. Communication is done much more by spoken word than by any other mean; what we are told seems many times of no importance, but maybe due to a failure in the attitude of listening than because of the content of what was said; perhaps the key-word was there, but we were distracted or impatient for our turn to speak; and it fled in the wind, to other ears, or no ears at all. Listen. When anthropology became aware that Man descended from the apes, it was noticed that what differenciated them was that, while one, even in a most primitive state, drew, the other, although on a superior anthropoid state, did not even look at the drawing. Image was always present through History, from paintings or rock art, with a true meaning that remains unsolved, to cinema or television, with a meaning that could also be questionned, and that must be urgently separated from the purpose of profit, publicity or ideological propaganda, so that it may accomplish, like the ancient forms, the mission of illuminating, inspiring and exalting the world. Look. But what you see, or listen or read, is nothing but raw material for the mind, clean from most of its impurities, as it was thought by many before; but because of that, maybe other impurities have been added. Therefore, never hurry to adhere; never let yourself be taken by any feeling other than the love of understanding, of seeing as clear as possible inside and out of yourself; analyse everything you receive and do not let anything inside your spirit that has not been analysed by the filter of criticism, coherence and conformity of facts; believe deeply in constructive doubt and start from there to certainties that you must always consider as temporary, except one: that you are capable of understanding everything that is understandable; reject everything else until you can put it on your scale of reason. Weigh everything. Think. Agostinho da Silva, in 'Textos e Ensaios Filosóficos'