Tag: philosophy

Only bad news can restore reason and put expectations in their proper place… And all the sloppiness, all the boredom and numbness towards existence suddenly dissipate, when circumstances compel the realization that it is from death that the meaning of all things derives, the sense of urgency, the need to do. Then the futile and the important, the true and the false become clear, the reason why one must proceed with firmness and resolution, leaving aside everything that is illusory and deviates from that core without which it would be best not to exist.

Much less impressive is the impact of death and its countless heralds than the human capacity to live ignoring them all, to live as if the possibility of them suddenly appearing was non-existent. It is truly extraordinary that the bulk of minds spend their entire lives without reflecting for a second on what is perhaps the only existential certainty, and therefore do not even suspect the wide-open fragility of everything. And so, again and again, those who think will have to face the surprise of others with what should in no way surprise them.

All truly serious study must have a personal purpose. The student, therefore, must first of all be able to define what he is looking for in the study, and how he expects it to impact his intellectual trajectory. This is equivalent to saying that serious study must be based on a genuine, personal interest, the greater the distance from which, the more useless the result of the study itself. It is true that one cannot predict how fruitful it will be, nor what paths it will lead to, because, in short, these will be part of the answers that will come to what one is looking for; but, in short, when one is not looking for anything, one cannot evaluate what one has achieved.

Nothing replaces the benefits of continuous, slow and prolonged work, which requires daily effort but is not completed in just one session. The qualities extracted from this practice soften expectations and solidify character. In short, discipline and patience are cultivated, virtues that together raise the spirit to another level.