Times of happiness. -Â
Times of happiness. -Â
An age of happiness is simply not possible because people want only to wish for it, but not to have it, and every individual learns during his good days to actually pray for disquiet and misery. The destiny of human beings is adapted to happy moments - every life has such moments - but not to happy ages. These will nevertheless continue to persist in the human imagination as "what lies beyond the mountains," as a legacy from our forefathers; for since time primordial the concept of an age of happiness has doubtless been taken from that state in which someone who has greatly exerted himself in hunting and in war gives himself over to rest, stretches out his limbs, and hears the wings of sleep rustle around him. It is a false conclusion if, in accord with that ancient habit but after long stretches of time filled with misery and distress, someone imagines that he could now participate in that state of happiness, correspondingly intensified and prolonged.
An age of happiness is simply not possible because people want only to wish for it, but not to have it, and every individual learns during his good days to actually pray for disquiet and misery. The destiny of human beings is adapted to happy moments - every life has such moments - but not to happy ages. These will nevertheless continue to persist in the human imagination as "what lies beyond the mountains," as a legacy from our forefathers; for since time primordial the concept of an age of happiness has doubtless been taken from that state in which someone who has greatly exerted himself in hunting and in war gives himself over to rest, stretches out his limbs, and hears the wings of sleep rustle around him. It is a false conclusion if, in accord with that ancient habit but after long stretches of time filled with misery and distress, someone imagines that he could now participate in that state of happiness, correspondingly intensified and prolonged.