The task is endless, it’s true. But we are here to pursue It. I do not have enough faith in reason to subscribe to a belief in progress or to any philosophy of history. I do believe at least that man’s awareness of his destiny has never ceased to advance. We have not overcome our condition, and yet we know it better. We know that we live in contradiction, but we also know that we must refuse this contradiction and do what is needed to reduce it. Our task as men is to find the few principles that will calm the infinite anguish of free souls. We must mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable again In a world so obviously unjust, give happiness a meaning once more to peoples poisoned by the misery of the century. Naturally, It is a superhuman task. But superhuman is the term for tasks men take a long time to accomplish, that’s all. ~Albert Camus
We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come. […] We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself? That is why life is always like a sketch. No, “sketch” is not quite the word, because a sketch is an outline of something, the groundwork for a picture, whereas the sketch that is our life is a sketch for nothing, an outline with no picture. – Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
justing
n. The habit telling yourself that just one tweak could solve all of your problems – if only you had the right haircut, if only you found the right group of friends, if only you made a little more money, if only he noticed you, if only she loved you back, if only you could find the time, if only y0u were confident – which leaves you feeling perpetually on the cusp of a better life, hanging around the top of the slide waiting for one little push.
From just, only, simply, merely + jousting, a sport won by positioning the tip of your lance at just the right spot, at just the right second. John Koenig, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Editor’s note – If there is one piece of advice I might be so bold as to pass on: If you make your own code it is imperative you follow it. Seven times down, eight times up. If you practice this, you too, will push your boulders.
