And the pleasures and rewards of the intellect are inseparable from angst, uncertainty, conflict and even despair.
Interpretation
Intellectual fulfillment comes with struggles and challenges that can lead to emotional turmoil.
Christopher Hitchens highlights the dual nature of intellectual pursuits, suggesting that the joys and rewards derived from deep thinking and understanding are inherently linked to difficult experiences such as anxiety, doubt, and even desolation. This juxtaposition implies that true intellectual gratification is not free from pain and challenge; rather, it is often through these very struggles that one gains profound insights and a deeper appreciation for knowledge.
In practice
This quote can be used as a thought-provoking introduction to a discussion on the cost of intellectual endeavors.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
It is well to cultivate a friendly feeling towards error, to treat it as a companion inseparable from our lives, as something having a purpose, which it truly has.
We should use our imagination more than our memory.
Write about the emotions you fear the most.
Every ceiling reached becomes a floor.
We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise.
Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.
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