There is always one more thing you can do to increase your odds of success.
These years of the Ecole Normale were an ordeal. Nothing was handed to me on the first try.
What is called "objectivity," scientific for instance (in which I firmly believe, in a given situation) imposes itself only within a context which is extremely vast, old, firmly established, or rooted in a network of conventions. . . and yet which still remains a context.
If you read philosophical texts of the tradition, you'll notice they almost never said 'I,' and didn't speak in the first person. From Aristotle to Heidegger, they try to consider their own lives as something marginal or accidental. What was essential was their teaching and their thinking. Biography is something empirical and outside, and is considered an accident that isn't necessarily or essentially linked to the philosophical activity or system.
I say things that contradict each other, that are in real tension with each other, that compose me, that make me live, and that will make me die.
Who ever said that one was born just once?
Each time this identity announces itself, someone or something cries: Look out for the trap, youre caught. Take off, get free, disengage yourself.
So will you meet me?” “Yeah. Sure. Where. ” “Montrag’s safe house in Connecticut. If you were the one who killed him, you know the address.
There is unspeakable joy. . . for the person who knows release from guilt and the relief of forgiveness.
Beauty is heaven's gift, and how few can boast of beauty.
You realize you have no control over how you're perceived.