Kindertotenlieder

The knowledge of evil is an inadequate knowledge.
—Spinoza, Ethics

But the most important thing is that one can no longer be sure nowadays who is and who is not in a state of temporary insanity.

—Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

The Shatterer has come up against

you.

Man the ramparts;

Watch the road.

—The Book of Nahum, 2.1

…Something real amongst shadows.

—Socrates, Meno

…We do not dare to be philosophical.

—William Barrett, Irrational Man

There is no denying that we fear the end of things because our way of life has brought so many things to an end.

—Wendell Berry, “Discipline and Hope”

Is it not against all natural reason that God out of his mere whim deserts men, hardens them, damns them, as if He delighted in sins and in such torments of the wretched for eternity, He who is said to be of such mercy and goodness? This appears iniquitous, cruel, and intolerable in God, by which very many have been offended in all ages. And who would not be? I was myself more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I wished I had never been created. Love God? I hated Him!

—Martin Luther, in Roland Bainton’s Here I Stand

We fly forgotten as a dream, certainly, leaving the forgetful world behind us to trample and mar and misplace everything we have ever cared for. This is just the way of it, and it is remarkable.

—Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

…how quickly the burnt-out candles multiply.

—C.P. Cavafy, “Candles”

We are only dogs chasing cars.

—Joseph Schumpeter

Who, then, are the immortals? Those who lived a long time, those who reappear time after time, those who had more life than death, but less time than life.

—Carlos Fuentes, This I Believe

From too much love of living,

From hope and fear set free,

We thank with brief thanksgiving

Whatever gods may be

That no life lives forever;

That dead men rise up never;

That even the weariest river

Winds somewhere safe to sea.

—Swinburne, The Garden of Proserpine

When do we set sail for happiness?

—Baudelaire, Journaux Intimes