The Great Renunciation

“for the young, there is nothing unattainable; a good thing desired with the whole force of a passionate will, and yet impossible, is to them not credible. yet, by death, by illness, by poverty, or by the voice of duty, we must learn, each one of us, that the world was not made for us, and that, however beautiful may be the things we crave, fate may nevertheless forbid them. it is part of courage, when misfortune comes, to bear without repining the ruin of our hopes, to turn away our thoughts from vain regrets. this degree of submission to power is not only just and right: it is the very gate of wisdom.” – bertrand russell, “a free man’s worship”

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