Matt Berry, author of A Human Strategy, The Mechanics of Virtue and Post-Atheism.
a rare beauty, A Human Strategy, aphorism 391
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391
So much accident and innocence need to collide together to form a single, rare beauty that one always ruins the process when one knows what to do ... yet it is this knowing that we crave.
367 A: Is it more pleasant without the obstacle? B: Yes, but before I discovered that it was an obstacle, I was content. There was no inconvenience, and therefore, there was no obstacle. A: But if it is “better” without the obstacle, wouldn’t it be wise to look for other comfortable, and therefore invisible obstacles everywhere? A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism
121 A government that leads the people is not a government by the people. A government by the people lacks initiative. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism
421 Note the difference between the spontaneity of the popular “transcendentalist” and that of the behaviorist. The one stands “impromptu,” pushing the issue with the best of intentions, but who, with a hand in the clear pond, upsets the sediment and can no longer see into the depths of the matter ... or he makes an attempt at “pure thought” which disdains all “gimmicks” and so waits and waits, cursing the long intervals between revelations. The other avails himself of every sort of preparation — no matter how petty or ridiculous — and is pulled toward the object. * “But this is not spontaneity!” ... “Well then, nature is the more accomplished liar.” “So you then admit to your dishonesty?” ... “But sir, it was not we who began with the attempt to get beyond nature. It is only a lie if spontaneity is the escape from nature and not its revelation.”