“Why, then, has mankind not long ago gone extinct during great epidemics of madness? Why do only a fairly minor number of individuals perish because they fail to endure the strain of living — because cognition gives them more than they can carry? Cultural history, as well as observation of ourselves and others, allow the following answer: Most people learn to save themselves by artificially limiting the content of consciousness.”

— Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990), “The Last Messiah”

~ Follow-up Question:

When most people reduce the scope of their awareness just enough to function, are they preserving life or diluting it, and is there a moral or existential cost to this form of self-preservation that cultural history too easily conceals?

“You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important. Art would not be important if life were not important, and life is important.”

— James Baldwin (1924–1987)

~ Follow-up Question:

Can the discovery that one’s personal experiences echo those of distant others redefine the boundaries between self and other, and what implications does this have for our understanding of empathy, identity, and the continuity of the human condition?

“Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It’s made up of all those who’ve consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners — I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous “I don’t know.””

— Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012), “The Poet and the World”

~ Follow-up Question:

To what extent might a life shaped by deliberate choice and sustained by love for one’s craft offer a deeper form of fulfillment than one driven by external validation, and how does this internal source of inspiration challenge our conventional ideas of success and vocation?