Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Bertrand Russell

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy – ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness–that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what–at last–I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

2 comments:

  1. The Prologue to Bertrand Russell’s Autobiography

    What I Have Lived For

    Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

    I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy – ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness–that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what–at last–I have found.

    With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

    Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

    This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

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  2. three simple passions of hers:
    longing for love,
    search for knowledge,
    pity for the suffering of mankind

    but the most overwhelmingly strong passion:
    longing for love since very young
    until one day when her heart met his, love synchronized
    why longing her life being with him and his company remain mystery
    just the thought of him, her life could go back 30 years more
    her eggs becomes so young and alive, aren't ashamed to admit their choice
    it's him and his sperms her eggs longing to be surround with
    how she dreamed of bearing his children so their life, their love may continue go on and on

    but wake up today and look down her weary teared self
    seen only her skin wrinkled dark spots here and there
    once her beauty today gone no more what only left over
    the torch of love remain inside her heart burning still
    she could not possible to live apart him so far away
    her freedom only a self-prove her love is true but not virtual
    on the bright side she believes that she'll see him in real and receive his love synchronized

    soul mate i thought have found u
    how i want to belong to you when my freedom day here
    endless happiness days lay ahead with you
    but on the dark side, u and i aren't real
    sadness when the thought of end us virtual
    but love aren't real and not true if held virtual
    once a chance was given for real but he refused
    the pain of possible refusal twice, i cannot hold
    practice to whine off him in order to receive the numbness of my pain
    my freedom of able to offering love
    but not for the soul of virtual
    virtual love a weak love,
    even the feelings are mutual but not worthy
    I want to grow and become a real girl
    not a wooden girl carved by my dear father Geppetto

    so this has been my life, because of you, my love
    life becomes meaningful and I have found it worth living,
    live with dreams, with faith and trust
    whatever my life may lead with love or without
    but if a real chance were offered me, I would gladly share my love with you only real

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