Wildsage

From RHJunior Comics Wiki

Wildsage the Elder was one of the most famous deep thinkers of the Rac_Cona_Daimh. He and his son - Wildsage the Younger - are the source of many of their philosophical sayings.

Here is a compilation of some of these sayings [1]:

Sayings of WildSage the elder

1. You cannot do just one thing
2. Nothing happens for just one reason
3. Many people can do the exact same thing, each for a radically different reason
4. Many people can do radically different things, each for the same reason
5. There are three reasons for any one action: the given reason, the sensible reason, and the real reason. Happy is he for whom all three are the same
6. There are three things a man can do: That at which he is good, that which he enjoys doing, and that at which he can make a living. Happy is he for whom all three are the same.
7. People mistake established procedure for problem-solving. Protocol is not designed for problem-solving, it is designed to deal with problems already solved.
8. To solve a problem--- Tail end first, tail in mouth, upside down, broken chain, head to head.
   • Tail end first: Examine a problem backwards. Consider how it unfolded. As you follow tracks backwards to a lair, reverse the order of the problem to find the solution.
   • Tail in mouth: as a serpent biting its own tail, or a fire burning itself out, many problems become their own solution. not all problems need intervention to provide a solution... and even aggravating the problem may hasten its demise.
   • Upside down: To see solutions, change how you see the world. See ceilings as floors, windows as doors, inside as outside. If you cannot remove the bear from the cage, remove the cage from the bear.
   • Broken Chain: all situations have an accepted protocol, all groups have an unstated hierarchy, all organizations have an established line of command, all unsolved problems have an entrenched set of rules that have failed to solve the problem. These are all chains, chains that bind a problem firmly in place rather than solving it, and a chain is only strong as its weakest link. Transgress the system, break just one rule with impunity, disregard one procedure as if it did not exist, and the chain falls apart. Sever the Gordian knot rather than splintering your nails picking it apart.
   • Head to Head: Often problems can be assets, for the solution to two or more problems is often found in each other. A hungry cat and a mouse-filled cupboard solve one another nicely.
9. Do not assume that a thing is new just because you have just become aware of it. Never assume a thing is timeless for the same reason.
10. Never interrupt an enemy when he makes a mistake. In fact, be sure to lend him a hand at every opportunity.
11. Government is not mother, father, family or friend. It is brute force and violence on a leash. And the only thing that lets a man sleep peacefully at night is the belief that the chain is stout, and the other end is in his hand.
12. A man needs three things--- power, freedom, responsibility. If he lacks but one, he only imagines he has the others.
13. The devil's most abject and debased slave is the man who does not believe in him.
14. A cynical friend of mine noted to his despair that people were not persuaded of a thing by fact, or evidence, or the power of reason, but by blind repetition. That which was repeated most often to them, he noted, they believed most avidly. "True," said I, but the truth has an advantage over falsehood. A falsehood must be repeated again and again by lying lips. The truth repeats itself with every sunrise, merely by existing."
15. Truth is not only stranger than fiction, usually it's ten times funnier, too.
16. Keep your faith in God. Not merely about the things that are easy and comfortable to believe about Him, but also the things that are hard, and confusing, and cruel, and heartbreaking. It is those things that you will find most nourishing to your heart, in the end.
17. I have studied the so-called "laws of power." They could have been summed up with one law, and spared us all much wasted breath: "Never let them never know the whole truth about you."
18. What a man does at play says more than what he does at work.
19. God does not leave us because we lose faith-- He remains there, steadfast and unchanging. It is just that we can no longer hear his voice over the storm our fears.
20. If you wait until you are 100% sure, then you will surely be 100% too late.
21. The snake thrashes most when it's pinned by the rake.
22. There are three kinds of power. Power over others. Power over the material universe. Power over oneself. Pursue the last one first, and the first one last.
23. The secret of power, is the power of secrets.
24. Most men have not learned that often the secret to saving the world is to leave the world be.
25. It is the key to the understanding of freedom: that when a being proclaims that what he desires is freedom, what he is asking for is that other people simply leave him be. To not be coerced, to not be meddled with, to interact with others at one's own discretion and on one's own terms.
26. Respect authority--- but do not trust it.
27. There is a difference between being silenced and being ignored.
28. Nothing is worth more than what someone is willing to pay for it.
29. It is not charity if it is taken by force. It is plunder, and he who takes it is lower than a thief.
30. Your station in life is the one you claim.

Other Popular Racconan sayings

The following are often attributed to Wildsage, but they are unconfirmed.

1. Never fully trust anything which can refer to you as "bite sized."
2. There's no such thing as an unarmed Racconan
3. Facts before feelings, results before intentions.
4. Tree-apes are a racconan's best friend.
5. Never trust a goat alone in a garden nor a politician alone with the law.
6. The guest who gripes loudest is the one who leaves latest.
7. Everything, and everyone, is useful for SOMETHING. Some people make finding out what a trial.
8. Two signs of danger: a goat lowering his head to butt, and a woman calling you by your full name.
9. The most amoral thief becomes a true believer in law the day he's robbed.
10. Be careful around small things. They've got nothing to lose and everything to prove.
11. No atheists in a siege, no vegetarians in a famine, no anarchists in a robbery.
12. Noone is completely wrong about everything. That is the primary reason that it is so hellish dealing with other people.
13. Not all problems can be solved. Some of them shouldn't be.
14. You might solve some problems at the same time, or all problems at some time, but you will never solve every problem all at once.
15. The more trivial an issue is, the more outrageous the storm and fury over it.
16. Two old men and a topic is an argument.
17. Only a fool rides anything that eats meat.
18. There is no topic so trivial that a group of old men won't argue over it.
19. Few things are worse than a mistake that becomes a tradition.
20. If you want to get something done, look for a busy person.
21. It is easier to get someone over a rough patch, than out of a hole.
22. Good manners and truthfulness rarely sit at the same table.