The World as I See It
I do not at all believe in human freedom
in the philosophical sense.
Everybody acts not only under external compulsion
but also in accordance with inner necessity.
Schopenhauer's saying,
"A man can do what he wants,but not want what he wants,"
has been a very real inspiration to me since my youth;
it has been a continual consolation
in the face of life's hardships, my own and others',
and an unfailing well-spring of tolerance.
This realization mercifully mitigates
the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility
and prevents us from taking ourselves
and other people all too seriously;
it is conducive to a view of life which,
in particular, gives humor its due.
To inquire after the meaning or object of one's own existence
or that of all creatures
has always seemed to me absurd
from an objective point of view.
And yet everybody has certain ideals
which determine the direction
of his endeavors and his judgments.
In this sense I have never looked upon ease and happiness
as ends in themselves-
this ethical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty.
The ideals which have lighted my way,
and time after time have given me new courage
to face life cheerfully,
have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth.
Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind,
without the occupation with the objective world,
the eternally unattainable
in the field of art and scientific endeavors,
life would have seemed to me empty.
The trite objects of human efforts-
possessions, outward success, luxury-
have always seemed to me contemptible.