Infamous

To what horrible depths the tormented soul will descend only to win infamy!

Translation

It is very dangerous to translate the truth in terms of your own egotism.

Desire

A desire with the purest intent is often savagely twisted to diabolical ends.

Responsibility

What we hate most is the truth that we are miserable, helpless, and responsible for all the suffering and evil in the world.

Presumption

THE PRETENSIONS OF POVERTY

                "Thou dost presume too much, poor needy wretch,

                To claim a station in the firmament,

                Because thy humble cottage, or thy tub,

                Nurses some lazy or pedantic virtue

                In the cheap sunshine or by shady springs,

                With roots and pot-herbs; where thy right hand,

                Tearing those humane passions from the mind,

                Upon whose stocks fair blooming virtues flourish,

                Degradeth nature, and benumbeth sense,

                And, Gorgon-like, turns active men to stone.

                We not require the dull society

                Of your necessitated temperance,

                Or that unnatural stupidity

                That knows nor joy nor sorrow; nor your forc'd

                Falsely exalted passive fortitude

                Above the active.  This low abject brood,

                That fix their seats in mediocrity,

                Become your servile minds; but we advance

                Such virtues only as admit excess,

                Brave, bounteous acts, regal magnificence,

                All-seeing prudence, magnanimity

                That knows no bound, and that heroic virtue

                For which antiquity hath left no name,

                But patterns only, such as Hercules,

                Achilles, Theseus.  Back to thy loath'd cell;

                And when thou seest the new enlightened sphere,

                Study to know but what those worthies were."

                                                                        --T. Carew

Reason

Reason, uninformed by Truth and enslaved by pride, often misleads the soul of man.

Conclusion

Before cultivating talent in an individual, there must be a willingness to make an effort and the opportunity to do so. If either of these two conditions are missing, the result will be existential frustration.

We should expect to find rampant escapism in a society where individuals lack the will to do something worthwhile and where the social milieu fails to provide opportunities for creative, useful work.

In fact, you do not need to be a close observer of American society to discover that most people are bored stiff. Most see work as a biblical curse, a necessary evil.

Even when people are not working, they are still very busy trying to forget how miserable they are. If they experience happiness at all, it is in its negative and ephemeral form as when you experience pleasure from the cessation of pain.

It is not likely that the capitalist system will conform to our wish for meaningful work anytime soon. The good news is that you do not have to wait for a utopian society to arrive at your doorstep.

You can begin to make your own way and to discover for yourself how to live a full life. If you awaken your true desire for a meaningful existence, society will grow out of you.

As you walk along the road toward happiness, taking advantage of the opportunities to live a full life in each moment, you will find that you do not have to wait to reach your destination in order to find happiness. Happiness will find you and, like a good friend, she will accompany you on your journey home.