Nine pillars of wisdom

Meeting with : Jean-Pierre MAURICE

Here is JEAN-PIERRE MAURICE, on the bridge of Brooklyn

(Interview with Jean-Pierre MAURICE)

In his book "The Nine Pillars of Wisdom ", Jean-Pierre Maurice calls for a universal humanism.

QUESTION: Jean-Pierre Maurice, who are you?

Jean-Pierre Maurice: As the poet wrote, I was born on an island which loves the wind. This island is Martinique. And I am attached to it as kelp, this seaweed which is moving in the sea all the while remaining attached to the rock. I love beautiful things, travels, art and people.

In the style of myself, I am "son" of Aimé Césaire who was a poet, a writer, a politician and a humanist native of Martinique. 

QUESTION: Why this book?

Jean-Pierre Maurice: Most of my youth was delighted by the Greek and Latin humanities and the Odyssey. This fabulous story of the long journey of Ulysses back to his island is still for me the most beautiful human story.

The Nine Pillars of Wisdom, new english edition with a preface of Elisabeth Durand-Colson

Why this book? A few years ago, I made a collection of wisdom quotes. Then, with the age, I realized that these fragments of the world were as small gravels which materialize somehow the march of humanity always looking for a better world. Then I assembled these quotes from wise people in order to allow my readers to climb the stairs for access to the nine Pillars of Wisdom.

Finally I found among these men and women from here and abroad - "from all continents, from all ages, from all cultures," as written by Jacques Attali so well, that the basis of a worldwide humanism, is an essential asset in this current chaos.

QUESTION: Chaos, you say? For which solutions would you then opt?

Jean-Pierre Maurice: From Socrates to Aimé Césaire, from Jesus to Martin Luther King, from Buddha to Abraham Lincoln or from Shakespeare to Goethe, many wise people of the past have left to the humanity a precious legacy, throwing then the basis for a universal humanism.

The West no longer dominates the world. But in the beginning of this hectic century, it would be too easy to let ourselves guided until despair. Nothing is lost! I think that the twentieth-century can find how to bring the universal values of human and knowledge.

In the current chaos, I would like to communicate to my readers my faith in mankind and humanity.

Soon a new edition, in English, of the book "LES NEUF PILIERS DE LA SAGESSE" with a preface of the Parisian philosopher Elizabeth DURAND-COLSON.