[net.philosophy] Quote for the day

bin@ism780.UUCP (07/13/84)

#N:ism780:20200012:000:800
ism780!bin    Jul 11 16:51:00 1984

I clipped this out from a magazine a few years ago and keep it on my
bulletin board at all times.  I thought I would share it with you here.

	"Life is, in fact, a battle ... Evil is insolent and
	strong; beauty enchanting but rare; goodness very apt
	to be weak; folly very apt to be defiant; wickedness to
	carry the day; imbeciles to be in great places, people
	of sense in small, and mankind generally, unhappy.  But
	the world as it stands is no illusion, no phantasm, no
	evil dream of a night; we wake up to it again and again
	for ever and ever; we can neither forget it nor deny it
	nor dispense with it."

				- Henry James


For such a pessimistic sounding statement, I find great hope in it.  For this
is the world.  It is reality.  And pretending it doesn't exist won't make
it go away.