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O favor com que mais se acende o engenho

Não no dá a pátria, não, que está metida

No gosto da cobiça e na rudeza

Duma austera, apagada e vil tristeza.

Lusíadas, X, 145

.

But The Wise Perceive Things About To Happen

For the gods perceive things in the future,

Ordinary people things in the present,

But the wise perceive things about to happen.

Philostratos, Life of Apollonios of Tyana, viii, 7

.

Ordinary mortals know what's happening now,

the gods know what the future holds

because they alone are totally enlightened.

Wise men are aware of future things

just about to happen.

.

Sometimes during moments of intense study

their hearing's troubled: the hidden sound

of things approaching reaches them,

and they listen reverently, while in the street outside

the people hear nothing whatsoever.

Constantine P. Cavafy

.

(Sugestão de JTG, que agradeço)