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September 17, 2007
the outcome of independence
‘The outcome of independence is solitude.’ She quoted this extract from Benjamin Constant’s Adolphe. Alas, the only alternative is the choice between being teased and harassed throughout the whole of one’s life, like a man bound up with family ties, or being deserted by everyone and everything because one has been unwilling to submit to the least constraint; the alternative, I repeat, is inevitable.
I have been saying to myself, and I cannot say it too often for my happiness and peace of mind (they are one and the same) that I must and can live only through the mind; the food it needs is more necessary to my life than bodily food.
The secret of having no worries – at least where I am concerned – is to have plenty of ideas. Therefore I cannot afford to let slip any means of encouraging them. Good books have this effect, and especially certain books. Health is the first consideration, but even when one is feeling dull and tired these particular books can renew the source from which my imagination flows.
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Neglect nothing that can make you great.
Eugene Delacroix
Posted by amin at September 17, 2007 4:20 PM