The existence of pleasure is the first mystery. The existence of pain has prompted far more philosophical speculation. Pleasure an...d pain need to be considered together; they are inseparable. Yet the space filled by each is perhaps different. Pleasure, defined as a sense of gratification, is essential for nature's workings. Otherwise there would be no impulse to satisfy the needs which ensure the body's and the species' survival. And survival--for reasons we do not know--is inwritten, inscribed as nature's only goal. Gratification, or its anticipation, acts as a goad. Pain or the fear of pain acts as a warning. Both are essential. The difference between them, considered as opposites, is that pleasure has a constant tendency to exceed its functional purpose, to not know its place.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... geometry became a symbol for human relations, except that it was better, because in geometry things never go bad. If certain t...hings occur, if certain lines meet, an angle is born. You cannot fail. It's not going to fail; it is eternal. I found in rules of mathematics a peace and a trust that I could not place in human beings. This sublimation was total and remained total. Thus, I'm able to avoid or manipulate or process pain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hoping that, when the devil days of my hurt Drag out to their last dregs and I resume... On such legs as are left me, in such heart As I can manage, remember to go home, My taste will not have turned insensitive To honey and bread old purity could love.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers The heroes of old,... Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears Of pain, darkness and cold.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »