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Do I need to smoke?

Ellopos: Why do we smoke, really?

Introducing Allen Carr's, My experience of smoking

 

HOMER

PLATO

ARISTOTLE

THE GREEK OLD TESTAMENT (SEPTUAGINT)

THE NEW TESTAMENT

PLOTINUS

DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

MAXIMUS CONFESSOR

SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN

CAVAFY

More...

I’m still surprised by an incident that happened when I was 22 years old, trying to persuade the wife of a friend to join me in an attempt to stop smoking. I had succeeded and we were both ready to be free from nicotine at last, when her very husband forbade her to stop smoking! It seems that he recognised some good effect in his wife's habit of smoking to such a degree, that he did not hesitate even for a moment to ignore both the freedom and the health of his own wife!

I was also surprised when I learned that cigarettes became popular during the two world wars, when the governments of the allies sent enormous amounts of them to soldiers. In what way could cigarettes help in war?

 

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Cf. Rilke, Letter to a Young Poet | Plato, Whom are we talking to? | Kierkegaard, My work as an author | Emerson, Self-knowledge | Gibson - McRury, Discovering one's face | Emerson, We differ in art, not in wisdom | Joyce, Portrait of the Artist