Hello SuperForest
Today is UNESCO dedicated World Philosophy Day 2009 . A day for thinking about thinking, for stretching those leeetle grey cells. I don’t have answers – like, I think, most of us, I’m still looking… And so, in honour of today, I thought I’d share with you some thoughts that have stayed with me lately from Bertrand Russell, who I’ve been reading a bit of:
“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge”
I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about man’s place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour, and the great spaces have a splendour of their own.
What I Believe (1925)
Those who live nobly, if obscurely, need not fear they have lived in vain. Something radiates from their lives, some light that shows the way to their friends, their neighbours, perhaps to long future ages. I find many men nowadays oppressed with a sense of impotence, with a feeling that in the vastness of modern societies there is nothing of importance that the individual can do. The individual, if he is filled with love of mankind, with breadth of vision, with courage and endurance, can do a great deal.
(attributed to Russell – I heard it on Radio 4 and diligently wrote it down)
Nutritious brain food – Thanks Bert!
Love
P
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