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