We live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another. Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring. When it's time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived. When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest. What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life. What is commonly called friendship is only a little more honor among rogues. Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but to so love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust. We need only travel enough to give our intellects an airing. The bluebird carries the sky on his back. |