A proverb is the wisdom of many and the wit of one. All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin. To deny we need and want power is to deny that we hope to be effective. There is a way in which the collective knowledge of mankind expresses itself, for the finite individual, through mere daily living... a way in which life itself is sheer knowing. There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination. Nothing in life is static; it either gets better, or it gets worse. Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once. We pass the word around; we ponder how the case is put by different people, we read the poetry; we meditate over the literature; we play the music; we change our minds; we reach an understanding. Society evolves this way, not by shouting each other down, but by the unique capacity of unique, individual human beings to comprehend each other. We are a spectacular, splendid manifestation of life. We have language. . . . We have affection We have genes for usefulness, and usefulness is about as close to a "common goal" of nature as I can guess at. And finally, and perhaps best of all, we have music. Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes. | 
