“All the traditions, religious and secular, enjoin
us to live each day of our lives as if it might be our last, so as to heighten
our seriousness about our reason for living, be it virtue or pleasure. But who
can live only on last days? We are all fugitives, but we are not all hermits.
We have children to teach, jobs to do, causes to serve. A day spent in the
contemplation of personal extinction is an insufficiently rich day. Without
care, then, we might be crippled by the consciousness of mortality.” — Leon
Wieseltier, “Washington Diarist: Binocular,” The New Republic,
December 12, 2013Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Quote of the Day (Leon Wieseltier, on Care and the ‘Consciousness of Mortality’)
“All the traditions, religious and secular, enjoin
us to live each day of our lives as if it might be our last, so as to heighten
our seriousness about our reason for living, be it virtue or pleasure. But who
can live only on last days? We are all fugitives, but we are not all hermits.
We have children to teach, jobs to do, causes to serve. A day spent in the
contemplation of personal extinction is an insufficiently rich day. Without
care, then, we might be crippled by the consciousness of mortality.” — Leon
Wieseltier, “Washington Diarist: Binocular,” The New Republic,
December 12, 2013
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