In progress without a purpose

In an interview with the Danish author and poet Søren Ulrik Thomsen in the Danish weekly newspaper Weekendavisen on the day before Christmas Eve, I read a very nice passage (in my own, most likely inadequate, translation):

I find that when you write, you do not quite know what you're doing. If you knew what you wanted to say, there was no reason to write it, as it would have been there already.

I've pretty much heard it from Thomsen before: that there is something in the poem, which is not in the poet, but when it becomes drafted in the above manner - and even followed up with:

When the book as written, you are as the author also its first reader. Then, you can spot some contexts, which were not aware existed while writing.

- it is as if something falls into place for me. Maybe it actually would be better to write something where one does not quite know what one does, instead of always trying to be in full control of the purpose of writing? Maybe thereby, one could see some of the contexts one did not know existed before things got written down?
(Translated from I færd uden formål)

The territory under the hat

I am what you might call a sucker for quotes, to such an extent that I happily stop to write it down if I come come across some particularly interesting.
I met two such quotations on a wall at a large company, which I had a business purpose to visit some years ago. One of them, I later discovered, can be attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., an American physician and author, and it sounds in its simplicity:

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

And it immediately made me think that there is no need to think twice - it's just to get started stretching. And here the other quote - which I unfortunately have not found any source for - comes in very appropriately, as it states that

The greatest undeveloped territory in the world lies under your hat.

It is a thought I think it's worth staying with, as the country, in which I stayed when I read these two quotations, was India. Curiously, a place which is considered underdeveloped by many people; people, who perhaps have plenty of potential to stretch something under their own hats. If not, our part of the world might be lagging behind even faster than one might otherwise fear.
(Translated from Territoriet under hatten, originally published September 25th, 2010).

On the topic of knowledge and wisdom

I recently stumbled upon a quote attributed to Jimi Hendrix - but when searching, I could not really find any evidence that I had found the right source of the quote.
However, this in turn led me to a quote from the american author and doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., who with some certainty should be the author of the following:

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

I think it is a beautiful quote - and so obviously true. If you carry knowledge, you have a good point from which to speak - but wisdom is achieved by listening (and reading, and in other ways absorbing knowledge).
(Translated from Noget om viden og visdom)