totalcel
Self-banned
-
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2021
- Posts
- 1,121
Here's why. Sociability is one of the dangerous and even fatal tendencies, for it brings us into contact with people the great majority of whom are morally bad and intellectually dull or perverse.
Almost all our sufferings spring from society, and peace of mind, constituting next to health the most essential clement of our happiness, is endangered by all society and therefore cannot really exist without a significant amount of solitude. The Cynics renounced all possessions in order to partake of the bliss of peace of mind; whoever with the same intention renounces society, has chosen the most prudent course.
The worst thing here is that in the individual moral and intellectual shortcomings conspire and work hand in hand, the result being extremely disagreeable phenomena of all kinds that make association with most people unpleasant and even intolerable. And so although there is in this world very much that is really bad, the worst thing in it is society, so that even Voltaire, the sociable Frenchman, had to say: La terre est couverte de gens qui ne meritent pas qu'on leur parle [The earth swarms with people who are not worth talking to.]
Sadi the Persian says of himself in the Gulistan: 'Disgusted with my friends in Damascus, I withdrew into the desert near Jerusalem to look for the companionship of animals.'
Almost all our sufferings spring from society, and peace of mind, constituting next to health the most essential clement of our happiness, is endangered by all society and therefore cannot really exist without a significant amount of solitude. The Cynics renounced all possessions in order to partake of the bliss of peace of mind; whoever with the same intention renounces society, has chosen the most prudent course.
The worst thing here is that in the individual moral and intellectual shortcomings conspire and work hand in hand, the result being extremely disagreeable phenomena of all kinds that make association with most people unpleasant and even intolerable. And so although there is in this world very much that is really bad, the worst thing in it is society, so that even Voltaire, the sociable Frenchman, had to say: La terre est couverte de gens qui ne meritent pas qu'on leur parle [The earth swarms with people who are not worth talking to.]
Sadi the Persian says of himself in the Gulistan: 'Disgusted with my friends in Damascus, I withdrew into the desert near Jerusalem to look for the companionship of animals.'
Last edited: