Czeslaw Milosz

Learning

To believe you are magnificent. And gradually discover that
you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life.

Czeslaw Milosz
The Road-side Dog

Discreet Charm of Nihilism

A prophet, as he called himself, of European nihilism, Nietzsche used to say with pride "we, nihilists" and defined what would be the "most blatant form of nihilism." It would be "a view according to which any belief, any conviction would be by necessity false, simply because there is no true world." He called this "a godlike way of thinking."

He would probably not be very happy with the use made of his oeuvre during the hundred years since his death. After all, what he valued was courage. and today courage is required to dissent from his views.

Czeslaw Milosz--The Road-side Dog

One of my favorite books, A Book of Luminous Things, is a poetry anthology complied by Czeslaw Milosz. I've picked up several of his books since Sara introduced me to him with that anthology. His poetry and prose are striking in their beauty and more so for the way they speak to our current cultural situation. Czeslaw died in 2004 at the age of 93. The book the quotes are from was written when he was 86! More information on him can be found here

I've encountered my fair share of atheists and scientific-reductionists since moving to Chicago. I have nothing against either view: I'd be more concerned with how they act and behave in the world than worrying about their opinions on ontology, poetry, or the Heart Sutra. Take heart Nietzsche... hopefully I am courageous in spite of the fact that I am a dinosaur in my beliefs.