Music and videos and stuff I like and want to share with YOU!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Bertrand Russell

At the age of 84, Russell added a five-paragraph prologue to a new publication of his autobiography, giving a summary of the work and his life, titled WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR.[43]

"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy—ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me."

Labels

1960sMusic 1970s 80s ACDC Acoustic Aerosmith Africa AlanWatts Algeria AliceinChains AllmanBrothers AmandaPalmer AmyWinehouse Anderson.Paak AngeliqueKidjo AngusandJuliaStone AnnieFloreBatchiellillys ArcadeFire ArcticMonkeys Argentina Arizona Art Astronomy AustinCityLimits Australia AvettBrothers AyubOgada Bali BassDrumofDeath BBCRadio BeastieBoys BeatClub Beatles Beirut Belgium BenHarper BennyGoodman Beyonce BigEasy Biking BillHicks BillyCollins Bjork BlackKeys BlackRebelMotorcycleClub BlackSabbath bluegrass Blues BobbyLong BobbyRush BobMarley BombaEstero BonIver BonnieRaitt BonyKing BronskiBeat BruceSpringsteen BuenaVistaSocialClub Bukowski busker Cake Calexico Cambodia CaptainBeefheart CarlosVives CarlySimon Cars CCR ChesterfieldKings Chickenfoot Chill ChrisThile ChrisThomasKing ChrisWhitley CivilTwilight Clash Classical ClimaxBluesBand climbing ClutchyHopkins CodyChesnutt Colbert Colorado Colors Coltrane Columbia Comedy CoreyHarris CowboyJunkies Cream CSNY Cuba CyndiLauper DamienRice Dance DandyWarhols DavidBowie DeadKennedys DeadWeather DeepPurple DeltaRae DengueFever Depeche Mode DetroitRocks DianaKrall DieAntwoord DieArtze Diving Divinyls DizzyGillespie Django DonKelleyBand DoobieBrothers DougStanhope dreams DropkickMurphys DubFX Dylan EchoandtheBunnymen EddieVedder Einstein EltonJohn ElvisCostello EmilieSimon England Eno EricBurdonandWar ErykaBadu extreme eyecandy Faces Filastine flying Focus FooFighters FosterThePeople FoxyBrown France FrankTurner FromtheBasement Fugees FullConcert Funkadelic FurryLewis Garbage GeorgeCarlin Germany Ginsberg GirlsRock Glossary gogolbordello Gonzo GraysonCapps Greece groove GuanoApes Guitar guitarpractice GunsNRoses GustavoSantaolalla Happiness healthcare HenryMiller HipHop Hole Homegrown HowlinWolf Iceland IggyPop India Intelligence interview invasivespecies Irya'sPlayground Italy JackKerouac Jackson5 JacksonBrowne JackWhite JamesBlake JamesMurphy JanetJackson JanisJoplin Japan JarabedePalo Jay-Z Jazz JeffBuckley JeffersonAirplane JethroTull JimmyFallon JoanMiro JohnButler JohnHiatt JohnnyCash JohnnyWinter JohnStewart JoolsHolland JoseGonzalez Juanes KateBush KazukiTomokawa KDLang KEXP KidCudi KingsofLeon KiyohikoSenba Korean Korn KristinDiable KTTunstall LadyGaGa LaoTsu LarryAndHisFlask LasOndasMarteles LedZeppelin LeonardCohen Ligabue LimpBizkit LindseyBuckingham LindseyStirling Lissie LITERATURE LivingColour LonnieJohnson LouisArmstrong LouReed Love LOVESONGS LyleLovett M83 Macklemore Madonna Malaysia MANA ManuChao MarconiUnion MarkTwain MaryOliver Matisyahu MaximumBaloon MC5 meditation Metallica Mexico MGMT MichaelDaves MichaelFranti Michigan MickeyAvalon MilesDavis Mixtape ModestMouse MOsleyWOtta Motivational MötleyCrüe Motörhead MotttheHoople Movies Mozart MtBachelor MuddyWaters Mugison Muse MyMorningJacket MyPhotos Mythology MyVideos Nashville NatachaAtlas NationalGeographic Nature NeilGaiman NeilYoung NewMexico NewYorkDolls NewZealand NicholasBrothers NickCave NiN NinaSimone Nirvana NorthernExposure Norway NPR opera Oregon OutKast Paris ParsonRedHeads PattiSmith PaulMcCartney PaulSimon PearlJam PetulaClark philosophy photography Picasso PiersFaccini PinkFLoyd Pixies PJHarvey Placebo PlayingforChange Poetry Pretenders Prodigy PublicEnemy Punk Puscifer Queen QueensoftheStoneAge quotes Raconteurs Radiohead RageAgainsttheMachine Rammstein Ramones RandomActsofCulture Ratt recipes reggae REM RémiGaillard RHCP RichardThompson RickieLeeJones Rihanna Rize RLBurnside RobbieWillliams RobertJohnson RodStewart RokiaTraoré RollingStones Roots RoryGallagher RoxyMusic RoyRogers RufusWainwright Rumi RuthieFoster RyanAdams RZA Santogold Science Scooter ScotchetSofa Scotland ScroobiusPip SergioLeone SexPistols SHAKIRA SidiTouré SigurRos Simo Singapore SisterSparrowandTheDirtyBirds skateboard Ski SkidRow SonicYouth SouthAfrica Spain Spoon sport SRV StaxxBrothers SteelyDan SteveMiller StormLarge stupidity Subdudes SundayMorningSongs Surfing synesthesia Szymborska TakeAwayShows TallestManOnEarth Tears for Fears TED TerenceMcKenna Thailand ThaoandtheGetDown TheBand TheBeautifulGirls TheChamps TheresaAndersson TheWho ThomYorke Timbaland Time TimeLapseVideo TinaTurner TinHat TommyEmmanuel TonyBennett TracyChapman Travel TRex Tricky TromboneShorty Truth TVontheRadio U2 Ukulele Urga Vaccines VanHalen VelvetRevolver VicChesnutt VintageTrouble Vonnegut WalkofftheEarth WaltWhitman WhiteStripes Wilco WildFlag WoodyGuthrie WorldMusic WoW XavierNaidoo XavierRudd YoLaTengo Zappa Zombies

Blog Archive