All Of Us Admire People We Don't

The Essential Feature, And Necessity Of Life Is To Know Reality, Which Means Knowing God.

If God Is Dead, Somebody Is Going To Have To Take His Place. It Will Be Megalomania Or Erotomania, The Drive For Power Or The Drive For Pleasure, The Clenched Fist Or The Phallus, Hitler Or Hugh Hefner.

Contrary To What Might Be Expected, I Look Back On Experiences That At The Time Seemed Especially Desolating And Painful With Particular Satisfaction. Indeed, I Can Say With Complete Truthfulness That Everything I Have Learned In My Seventy-five Years In This World, Everything That Has Truly Enhanced And Enlightened My Existence, Has Been Through Affliction And Not Through Happiness, Whether Pursued Or Attained

Accumulating Knowledge Is A Form Of Avarice And Lends Itself To Another Version Of The Midas Story ...man [is] So Avid For Knowledge That Everything That He Touches Turns To Facts; His Faith Becomes Theology; His Love Becomes Lechery; His Wisdom Becomes Science; Pursuing Meaning, He Ignores Truth.

Everything Tolstoy Wrote Is Precious, But I Found This Final Statement Of The Truth About Life As He Had Come To Understand It Particularly Beautiful And Moving. 'that Is What I Have Wanted To Say To You, My Brothers. Before I Died.' So He Concludes, Giving One A Vivid Sense Of The Old Man, Pen In Hand And Bent Over The Paper, His Forehead Wrinkled Into A Look Of Puzzlement Very Characteristic Of Him, As Though He Were Perpetually Wondering How Others Could Fail To See What Was To Him So Clear - That The Law Of Love Explained All Mysteries And Invalidated All Other Laws.