Anyway

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school... It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.

- Walden, by H. D. Thoreau

I JUST DON'T SEEM TO HAVE A COMPASS TO TELL ME WHAT I'M DESTINED FOR... And yet, looking back, everything seems to fit so well that it's as if a guiding spirit has been showing me the way.

- Friedrich Nietzsche, 1871 (at age 27)

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When your daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey.

- Rudyard Kipling

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French: Rien ne forme un jeune homme comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut.

English: Nothing shapes a young man like the right affair with the right woman.

Thus my wanderings over the fields of knowledge not only failed to cure me of my despair, but increased it. One branch of knowledge gave no answer at all to the problem of life, another gave a direct answer which confirmed my despair, and showed that the state to which I had come was not the result of my going astray, of any mental disorder, but, on the contrary, of my thinking rightly, of my being in agreement with the conclusions of the most powerful intellects among mankind.

- Leo Tolstoy

وهكذا فإنّ أسفاري في حقولِ المعرفة البشرية لم تفشل فقط في علاجي من اليأس، بل زادت منه. إذ أنّ أحدَ فروع المعرفة لا يملك على الإطلاق أي جوابٍ لمعضلةِ الحياة. أما فرعٌ آخر، فيملك جوابًا مباشرًا يؤكد يأسي، ويُبيّن لي أنّ الحال التي وصلتُ لها ليست نتيجةَ استنتاج خاطئ من جانبي، أو بسبب مرضٍ عقلي، بل على العكس، بسبب تفكيري الصائب، وبسبب أنّ رأيي على وفاق مع ما استنتجته أقوى العقول بين بني البشر.

- ليو تولستوي

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In contradiction to the theory that the less learned we are the less we understand the meaning of life, and see in our sufferings and death but an evil joke, these men of the people live, suffer, and draw near to death, in quiet confidence and oftenest with joy.

- Leo Tolstoy