Pushkin was right!

“To the orders of God or muse be obedient.

Don’t be afraid of insult,

don’t demand the laurel wreath.

Slander and praise receive

with equal indifference.

     And never argue with a fool.”

This is from a poem Alexander Pushkin wrote in 1836. The epigraph is from Horace – “Exegi Monumentum”

Maybe if he had taken his own advice, he would not have lost in life in a senseless duel in St. Petersburg not long after he wrote this. Nevertheless the advice is not to be ignored. I gave these words in a calligraphic poem, framed, as a gift to my teenaged grandchildren for their home or college room walls. It is advice we all should follow.

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Immortal Words

To the orders of God or muse be obedient.                                                     
Don’t be afraid of insult,
don’t demand the laurel wreath.
Slander and praise receive with equal indifference.

And never argue with a fool.

Alexander Pushkin 1836

From a poem Pushkin wrote in 1836.
The epigraph is from Horace –
“Exegi Monumentum”