The average person is not especially curious about the world. He is alive, and being somehow obliged to deal with this condition, feels the less effort it requires, the better. Whereas learning about the world is labor, and a great all-consuming one at that. Most people develop quite antithetical talents, in fact - to look without seeing, to listen without hearing, mainly to preserve onself within oneself.
- Ryszard Kapuściński, Travels with Herodotus
- Ryszard Kapuściński, Travels with Herodotus
“If one has gone without music for a long time it afterwards enters the blood all too quickly like a heavy southern vine, and leaves behind a soul narcotically dulled, half-awake and longing for sleep.”
—Human, All Too Human, “The Wanderer and His Shadow,” §154 (excerpt).
—Human, All Too Human, “The Wanderer and His Shadow,” §154 (excerpt).
Such people, while useful, even agreeable, to others, are, if truth be told, frequently unhappy–lonely in fact. Yes, they seek out others, and it may even seem to them that in a certain country or city they have managed to find true kinship and fellowship, having come to know and learn about a people; but they wake up one day and suddenly feel that nothing actually binds them to these people, that they can leave here at once. They realize that another country, some other people, have now beguiled them, and that yesterday’s most riveting event now pales and loses all meaning and significance. For all intents and purposes, they do not grow attached to anything, do not put down deep roots. Their empathy is sincere, but superficial. If asked which of the countries they have visited they like best, they are embarrassed–they do not know how to answer. Which one? In a certain sense–all of them. There is something compelling about each. To which country would they like to return once more? Again, embarrassment–they had never asked themselves such a question. The one certainty is that they would like to be back on the road, going somewhere. To be on their way again–that is the dream.
- Ryszard Kapuściński, Travels with Herodotus
- Ryszard Kapuściński, Travels with Herodotus
There is no rest for the humble except in despising the great, whose only thought of the people is inspired by self-interest or sadism.
- Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night
- Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night
You could attach prices to thoughts. Some cost a lot, some a little. And how does one pay for thoughts? The answer, I think, is: with courage.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and Value
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and Value