We wonder at the man who gives his life to the group, forgetting that the group also gives its life to him.
Being
Identity, that spectator of what he calls himself,
That net and aggregate of energies in transient combination.
—Cunningham
Are you unprepared for it because it is out of the question, or is it out of the question because you are unprepared for it?
You say you could never be bored or unhappy with some other person’s life, and yet how different it would be, if it were yours.
You never violate your principles: you only discover that they are not what you thought they were.
To study ethics, read fiction, not philosophy.
So many selves, so little to express.
For himself a man will go only so far. To stop at nothing, discard every scruple, he must be convinced that he will make a better world.
Without disgust there is nothing to tolerate or to forgive.
1. Summarize yourself in three words.
2. Prefix them with “aging.”
3. Repeat until the result is not embarrassing.
Matter makes space, and clocks make time.