Luciano Duarte

A mere bacteria, a viral infection, a muscle strain are enough to completely disrupt the routine, to leave even the healthiest person lying in bed, groaning. For that reason alone, it is clear that we are nothing, and that gratitude must necessarily follow the good days. When struck down by some ailment, we cannot think of anything else but when recovery will come. Time stand...

Cioran rightly recommended that anyone experiencing a fit of rage toward someone simply take a piece of paper and a pen and write down a few dozen insults: “He’s a pig, a scoundrel, a criminal, an animal….” The rage passes. If it does not pass, it diminishes dramatically, and putting it down in writing brings about a kind of release. Now, what happens with anger also happens ...

It has become a common belief that, to prove his competence on a talk show, a journalist must put the interviewee on the spot, confront him, expose him, and highlight his flaws and contradictions. A competent journalist, therefore, must masterfully play the role of accuser. If, for example, a journalist thinks a little differently and believes that his role is simply to try t...

At first, it is discovering oneself as an agent, pushing one’s own abilities to the limit, until one feels them exhausted, insufficient. Then, it is recognizing the impossibility of relying solely on them, and the need for greater support. Such support is possible! But in order to realize this, man usually has to fail first. It is when the world comes crashing down, when effo...

Better are always the words of one who does not allow himself to be dominated by a sense of self-importance, even if that sense has not been transformed into humility. Contempt, scorn, whatever it may be: anything is valid to nullify it, and any expression that contradicts it is more pleasing than the pride that may stem from it. The reader, even if not a philosopher, will al...