our limited time and resources, The Mechanics of Virtue, aphorism 317

317

Given our limited time and resources, two perfect goals do not excel one adequate goal. But even if one should aspire to one perfect goal, one would first have to acquire the wisdom necessary to determine what that goal could be ... which is a very ambitious goal itself. By the time one secures this wisdom, the perfect goal is already a second goal, and for which one must begin all over again, but with less time available. Thus, whether or not the second goal ends up being this very quest for wisdom which brought us here, one will go the greater distance if one carries this original quest on to its ultimate conclusion.

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