Animals can’t create philosophies and religions, and they can’t smile. We, on the other hand, can certainly produce a lot of different philosophies and religions and we can produce a lot of different smiles.

Politicians have their special way of smiling when they want to look good on TV. Social workers have their kind of understanding and well meaning smiles, with the head bent a little. Many born again Christians produce an interesting holy looking kind of smile. Idiots have their idiotic smiles, car salesmen have their big Hollywood smiles and crooks have their nasty ones. Very cultivated and high born old ladies can smile wonderful smiles as they spread their sarcasms around.

Alcoholics have their special way of smiling. They produce a very stupid kind of smile. You can immediately see that someone is an alcoholic only by the way he smiles. Some people are not alcoholics but are filled with mendacities for other reasons. Their smiles are difficult to make out, but I have noticed that when they get older their weird smiles get more pronounced.

All this applies of course also to laughs. There are also many different ways of laughing. But not all smiles and laughs are false. There are also true smiles and true laughs, straight from the heart. These smiles and laughs are of a completely different quality. They originate from a completely different part of the brain.

There is also true religiosity, true spirituality and true philosophy. Not everything what people say (including one self) is false. And of course, there is a also a true self.
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Some people are right-wingers and some are left-wingers. Some are devout Catholics, some are devout Muslims and some are Boston Red Sox fanatics. But some people are nothing special. They don't belong to any particular group. With such people I can feel at ease and be myself. In that group I can find friends wherever I go.

Many Germans explained after the second world war that they had never been aware of the concentration camps and what was going on there.

To buy stolen property in good faith is not as bad as if you know that it is stolen property.

It is better not to know. It is easier to be happy if you don't know what is going on.

We are born somewhere and we will die somewhere. Life is about wandering about, like hens. Sometimes we bump into each other.

Trying to live a balanced life is like looking for something that doesn't exist.

It is extremely difficult to give up ones religion, ideas and political opinions. Not even when one finally gets totally convinced that the thoughts are crazy. Many devout Nazis had problems with that after the war. It is like giving up smoking. Some people are coughing blood and having serious difficulties with breathing but keeps on smoking anyway.

I am wrong. I have been completely wrong for many, many years. I am fooled and I am fooling myself. I am a complete idiot. That is a tough one to swallow.

This applies to all kind of ideas, beliefs and convictions: I am ugly. I have a huge ugly nose. I am no good. I am fuckin useless. Nobody loves me. Nobody wants me…

Or: I am very good and I am smart. I am from a good family, I have got an excellent upbringing and I sure look good. I have good genes. And above everything, I am rich. I am not like the Tom, Dick and Harry’s. That is why I am entitled to so much more than all the rest.

Or:Life is about competition. Life is for the strong. One has to fight like hell to reach the top. The only thing that really counts is money, you can’t deny that. The prettiest girls prefer the richest boys. All talk about equal rights and justice is just drivel. But religion is not something to look down upon. It is a perfect cover for your true ambitions.

All convictions are dangerous. Sometimes you are right, sometimes you are wrong, but you can never be completely sure when you are right and when you are wrong. Do not trust yourself. Do not trust your inner voice.