Sayings of the genius who lived with 40 thousand books at home: Frashëri myths and Albanian paradoxes

The portrait of his father, the renaissanceist Abdyl Frashëri, hung on the walls of schools in Albania, while he, the son, was considered an enemy of the people during communism.

The story of Mit'hat Frashëri, better known by his nickname Lumo Skëndo, is one of the many paradoxes of Albanian society during the communist regime.

Forced to leave Albania in 1944, as an opponent of the Communist Party, he died on October 3, 1949 in New York, America. During the entire period of the communist regime, his activity and life were left in complete oblivion. The head of the Congress of Bitola, signatory of the Independence Document, minister in the Government of Ismail Qemali, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Albania in 1923.1925 in Athens, and then one of the founders of the Nationalist Party, did not become part of any school curriculum in Albania.

But, he is also known as one of the people who had one of the largest libraries. After the liberation of Albania, the property of Mit'hat Bej Frashër was seized. One of the objects seized was his personal library. Today, about 40 thousand volumes of this library are preserved (and are part of the National Library of Albania).

Below you can read fifty sayings of this Albanian with great values.

• The Albanian by nature is vain, full of vanity and selfishness. He never likes to see and recognize his own fault and fault: he always likes to blame another.

• The foundation of knowledge and patriotism is the Albanian language.

• We cannot work for our country, but we did not have a love for every corner of Albania.

• Freedom is that no one disturbs you and you do not disturb others.

• What should be our ideal? It should be the greatness and honor of the Albanian, the unity and unity of the nation, happiness and general progress.

• Albanians, although mostly Muslim, have never considered themselves Turks. On the contrary, they had a clear notion of their own individuality, and a deep gulf prevented them from mixing with the race of the conquerors.

• When you take on a task, have discipline and patience. The lack of discipline and the fire of impatience ruined the Albanian

• Disobedience and not obedience ruined the Albanian. First, set an example of non-blind obedience.

• Get rid of yourself as a little wise and get wise. Arrogance has driven us crazy to this day.

• Don't be sad if the other one goes first, even though you can't sit at the top. Envy has left us ungrateful.

• He is happy who knows and can work, who knows and can make others work.

• To awaken the spirit of initiative, we must stop expecting anything from the government.

• Some people do not like conversation, they like self-talk (monologue): they insist on their ideas and run on the thesis they like. In the French language, there is a beautiful expression for such people: "They like to listen to themselves".

• The conversation is a recreation of the soul and mind, which a person feels by confessing his opinion and listening to others, with a little desire, with an open heart, maybe, sometimes even with a little diplomacy, like a chess game.

• Few people know and feel the taste of conversation, for which we must first be tolerant, without insistence, prudent and without anger.

• The misfortune of mankind comes from the lack of will. It prevents moral perfection and does not let us correct our faults...

• We must have the courage to tell the truth, to call white to white and black to black.

• It is a great virtue to want to be, as we want, to look or confess as we are.

• The container is tinned internally.

• Friendship is not always made more likely and with character sympathy; many times it becomes wiser to make concessions for a friend, to know how to love him as he is, with his good and bad.

• Weaving is measured by boxes, materials by yards and time by events.

• In order for a person to always be honest, to maintain his honesty and integrity against every event and fall, he must take into account that he can sit for a day in old shoes and eat bread and cheese.

• Any person who is in misery is obviously not always honest, but he who cannot bear misery and deprivation cannot keep his honesty.

• Do not rebuke and curse the Albanian for the fault he has committed, because that is the strongest way to make him persist in that fault. Take it well and try to convince him, without even having the appearance of giving advice.

• The Albanian, not being used to political life, I mean, not having a state, government and independence until today, has not yet understood the burden, duties and responsibilities that come from an independent life.

• Any progress comes from advanced ideas, from new ideas.

• There are fearful, weak natures that are afraid of reality and like the worm of doubt. They are like those who would rather have their teeth always gnashed than endure the pain of smoking once.

• Enthusiasm, full faith in the thought, desire and inspiration of the minute, undoubtedly added us many times to guilt and mistakes.

• Learn to save time, learn how to use this valuable thing that they call time... We forget that our days are measured and that the witch's scissors of time are always ready to cut the thread of laughter...

• In the evenings, without sleeping, take stock and look at what you did during the day and, if a new thought came to you, if you felt something new, don't look at that day as lost: you are profitable .

• Partisans of equalization never want the lower to rise as high as the higher, but the higher to lower as lower. Flattening between them means destruction and collapse. That's why disaster comes.

• The woman enslaves us with her weaknesses and not with her will. The less power the woman seems to have, the more the upper hand has over us.

• Patricularism, localism and exclusivism among Albanians are revealed by the mania that everyone has to take the name of the village or the city as a family name. When two Albanians mature, after the first joy, the essential question is: where do we get sir?

• Many times the ideal for the Albanian is to be good, in any way. Undoubtedly, having a narrow horizon, he can only look for easy successes.

• The misfortune that man has little ambition and too much vanity.

• People who do not find enough interest in themselves, deal with the affairs of the world.

• Religion, motherland, property. But not only the motherland, even religion itself derives from the spirit of property.

• Words and phrases are lifeless corpses: Style gives them soul. This soul that we put into style is the self.

• Only one good proverb knows: "The good brave has many friends". Yes, when I think of Ali Pasha's words: two Albanians are too many! Then I want to return the proverb: "The good brave with friends... a little!"

• All misfortune comes when a person seeks to live without earning, to earn without working, to work without getting tired.

• The greatest pain is the inner sorrow, not the one that is confessed.

• Often our anger comes not because we are right, but because we are guilty and we feel bad that others see us.

• Man needs love: to love and to be needed.

• Communism is a terrible disease, like the rabies of dogs and wolves, it is a cholera that destroys not only the body, but even more, the heart and soul of man.

• Patriotism is selfishness. That feeling pushes us to seek the greatness and honor of the nation, because in that greatness and in that honor we will find the greatness, happiness and honor of each one.

• The people of a nation are solitary. Your goodness and happiness are mine. Your misfortune is mine too. Your honor honors me and your shame darkens my face.

• The salvation of Albania will come through ourselves.

• All value, all power, all virtue in this world is work.

• The Albanian escapes from the Motherland easily, not that he emigrates, but he goes to seek his fortune elsewhere and it is perhaps this exodus that prevents his homeland from being cultivated better.

• At work, be a servant for glory. Be happy when you do something useful without the world knowing. /Tirana Observer/