Thursday 29 November 2012

Havamal Snippets 6: Common Sense Over Pride

It's Wednesday (Woden/Odin's Day) which means that it's time for another verse from the Havamal 'Sayings of the High One - Odin'. The poem full of wisdom, both everyday and ethereal. (The poem can be found in full HERE):
6. Of his understanding
no one should be proud,
but rather in conduct cautious.
When the prudent and taciturn
come to a dwelling,
harm seldom befalls the cautious;
for a firmer friend
no man ever gets
than great sagacity.

(Source: http://heathengods.com/havamal/thorpe.htm)
As Francis Parker Yockey pointed out, realism - seeing things as they are- is preferable to sunny optimism. Excess optimism may come from having an unjustifiable high opinion of oneself. Here is Yockey's relevant quote on Realism from his magnum opus, 'Imperium':
Between [optimism and pessimism] lies realism, which
wants to know what is, what must be done, how it can be done. Realism is
historical thinking, and it is also political thinking. Realism does not
approach the world with a preconceived principle to which things ought to
submit — it is this prime stupidity which begets both pessimism and
optimism. If it looks as though things will not fit, so to declare is
pessimism. Optimism continues to pretend that they do, despite the entire
course of History, to the contrary. Of the two diseases, optimism is more
dangerous to the soul, for it is more blind. Pessimism, by not being afraid to
affirm the unpleasing, is at least capable of seeing, and may yield to a
flaring-up of healthy instincts. 
Source: Yockey FP, Imperium. [page 25; or page 49 of the pdf book which is available HERE]


[End.]

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