120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 102

Chapter 6, Section 6, On Love

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The stage benefits life more from love.For on the stage love is always the subject of comedy, and sometimes tragedy; but in life it always brings woe, sometimes like a sea succubus, sometimes like a nemesis.

We may observe that, among all great men, few are so carried away by love to the point of insanity.But there are some great minds who cannot exclude such fragile emotions.It can be seen that love can not only enter the open heart, but also enter the fortified heart.

Epicurus said, "Each of us is but a stage to others." That's not a good statement.It seems that human beings should kneel before one idol after another and make themselves slaves, not slaves of the mouth but slaves of the eyes.But God gave human eyes a nobler purpose.Strangely enough, one can witness the excess of lust by the following facts.It is a fact that the kind of perpetual hyperbole is appropriate only for love, and not for anything else.Someone said it well: the greatest flattery is always reserved for oneself.The only exception is the flattery of lovers.Because no matter how proud and self-righteous a person is, he is willing to despise himself in front of his lover.So someone said it well: "It is impossible for a person to be wise in love." This kind of weakness can only be seen clearly by others.

Since ancient times, there are only two kinds of rewards for love, either to get the love of the other party or to be scorned deeply in the other party's heart.Therefore, one should be very careful to guard against this kind of passion, because it not only makes a person lose other things, but also loses himself.

When people are weak in heart, that is, when they are most proud and most distressed, this kind of lust is most likely to overflow, although in the most distressed, the overflow of this passion is not noticed.Both situations kindle and intensify the fire of love, so that Love is the child of Stupidity.If any one is compelled to fall in love, let it be temperate, and keep it quite separate from the other affairs of life, for love, when it takes part in business, brings misfortune to men, and prevents them from consistently pursuing their goals. Purpose.

I don't know why brave people fall in love so easily.I think it's just as much as they like to drink, because danger often needs to be compensated in pleasure.In human nature, there is a hidden intention and motivation to love others. If this kind of love is not only given to one person or a few people, it will naturally be given to everyone, and it will make people kind and generous. This is sometimes seen, for example, among monks.

The love of husband and wife makes human beings multiply; the love of friends makes human beings perfect; but the love of lust makes human beings corrupt.

【Together with you】

Eros is based on the pleasure of the soul, and sex is based on the pleasure of the body.However, the difference between the two is sometimes just a thought.Love is like a drama that is being staged, and whether it ends with a happy ending or with a sad color as the keynote of the curtain, the key depends on our understanding of love and the grasp of the essence of love.An important condition for doing all this well is whether you have a stalwart personality coordinates.

Sometimes, to love someone is to exaggerate the feeling of love too much, or exaggerate the loveliness of the loved one.Just like hating a person, it is we who have deepened the feeling and degree of hatred in our hearts too much.That's all.

(End of this chapter)