Status Updates From A Vida Intelectual: Seu esp...

Chapter 4, section IV.

A significant percent of my annotations are “wow.”

“…gag the newspapers!” (p. 95) is prophetic.

“Do something, or do nothing at all… Half-work, which is half-rest, is good neither for rest, nor for work.” (p. 96). See also, Yoda.

The last two and a half pages are beautiful descriptions of working with loved ones. How does it keep getting better?

“Men of pleasure” spend their evenings “dining, smoking, playing cards, talking noisily, frequenting the theaters… going to bed with their minds ‘relaxed.’

Yes, indeed, relaxed; but like a violin with all its strings completely slackened. What a labor next day to tune them all up again!” (p. 91).

I am taking this personally. Crushed.

“The human soul is rich: two seeds can be planted side by side without harming each other.”

“…let the stars speak to you of measureless duration; let the pebbles on your path be to you the residue of the formation of the earth; let the sight of a family make you think of past generations; and let the least contact with your fellows throw light on the highest conception of man.”

Still going strong. It’s a very hopeful book. While explaining that the intellectual life commits one to many daunting sacrifices, Sertillanges’s writing is beautiful, and makes the ideal conditions for a life of study sound like heaven.