« "There are beings who make a sun a simple yellow spot, but there are also some that make a simple yellow spot, a real sun" (quote attributed to Pablo Picasso) One day I showed one of my grandsons some potted plants on the balcony of the family apartment, I was a little disconcerted and very pleasantly impressed to surprise him. , shortly afterwards, explaining to his brother: "It's incredible, the most beautiful flower in Papy's pots, it's one he didn't plant!" He was talking about a dandelion flower that had developed from a seed brought by the wind. Many adults would have seen it as a "weed" that had to be removed to preserve the so-called harmony of artificial plantations. Yet a child, whose perception was not yet blunt, was able to marvel at what an overripe adult ends up finding banal. This bluntness is not inevitable: I think that a Francis of Assisi, for example, showed that he had maintained this natural ability of the children when he recommended not to cultivate the whole garden, but to agree to leave a part of it in wasteland, to keep intact our ability to marvel at the beauty of wild herbs. I think my grandson's remark expressed a very profound truth and taught us a very important lesson. Did Jesus Christ not say, it seems: "If you do not change your attitude and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (New Testament, Matthew 18:3). I don't know what the "kingdom of heaven" is, let alone what it takes to get in. However, what I am convinced of is that we cannot be really happy if we do not find or maintain the purity of the look we had when we were children. It is necessary to understand and feel in depth, with one's mind, heart and body, that nothing is banal! Fortunately, this can be learned (like many other things)! It is necessary, patiently, to maintain the flame in the depths of oneself, to reject the "adult" tendencies to be considered "childish" wonder, but on the contrary, regularly address to this inner sun, the same praise as that addressed by Edmond Rostand to the outside sun: "O Sun! you without whom things would be only what they are! (Hymn to the Sun in Chantecler). But if you don't succeed, at least out of pity, refrain from stifling the wonder of others! Never say, especially to a child, something like" "It's just the sun" or "It's just a flower." Nothing is mundane! »

« DOUTE "Doubt everything and especially what I will tell you" (speech attributed to the Buddha) It is little to say that doubt is always more fruitful than all certainties. Doubt moves forward, discover; certainties suffocate. I am referring, of course, to constructive doubt, the one that pushes to verify, to better understand, to better describe, not the destructive doubt which rejects without even examining and without worrying to replace. Doubt is the first engine of knowledge. Indeed, to know, one must have found; to find, you have to have searched; to search, you have to have doubted. When you think you know, you don't want to look anymore and when you're not looking, you have no chance of finding it. Doubt produces instability that forces us to move forward, to seek, to progress. It is this dynamic that is at the root of all the progress in knowledge. Faith, on the other hand, tends to block reason in beliefs. It ends up inhibiting critical thinking and can lead to fundamentalism. Historically, beliefs of all kinds, be they religious, traditional, superstitious, nationalist, racial, ideological have always been a hindrance to progress towards more humanity. It is, on the other hand, the constant questioning of doubt that has led to all the significant breakthroughs in scientific, technological, social and humanitarian progress. The asceticism of doubt Only doubt allows us to move step by step towards an ever finer, more complete knowledge, closer to reality. This is the laborious and humble asceticism of the true scientist who knows that absolute truth is not attainable by reason, his only working tool. What strengthens him in his approach is the regular opening of the cognitive landscape that is offered to him with each new pass passed past. Learning to doubt from an early age is the best bulwark against all forms of fundamentalism and fanaticism. For ever more humanity, it is doubt (and the reflection it engenders) that must be reinforced in young people instead of some thoughtless belief or obedience. »

« HUMILITY Humility, humility, humility! With its systematic doubt, science is a wonderful school of humility. To the pride of the "healer", who claims to heal, she contrasts the humility of the doctor, who heals as best he can in order to heal, knowing that he cannot be sure of achieving this goal. Similarly, to the pride of the believer, who claims to know the truth or, at least, to know the path to the truth, it contrasts the humility of the seeker, who knows that he can only approach step by step, blind or almost, a hypothetical ultimate truth, without ever reaching it. Yet it is this humility that turns out to be, by far, the most fruitful. It is the constant questioning that allows us to move forward. From drop of water to drop of water, the research it motivates ends up filling oceans with knowledge. "Knowledge is science, and science cannot admit the slightest hypocrisy, the slightest presumption; what it requires is certainly the opposite: honesty and modesty" (Mao Tse-Toung, Of Practice and Contradiction) It must be recognized, however, that if the researcher, in his practice, necessarily exercises this modesty, an inevitable price to pay for fertility, he keeps in him something resembling pride: the mad bet of intelligibility! He is convinced that his reason can overcome a huge multitude of questions about the Universe and how it works. He feels a certain pride in discovering these secrets of the world that remained hidden until he discovers them. It must be said, to his credit, that this crazy bet of intelligibility is almost always won! When this topic emerges in a conversation, I usually compare the researcher to a car driver. To him, too, it is necessary, to win, a powerful and efficient engine: it is this kind of "well placed" pride that provides it. But without the powerful and powerful brakes, he would start in the scene at the first corner: it is humility that provides these brakes. And so much for the contradiction! »