Wisdom

Mysterious wisdom,
can an artist be wise?
Beautiful wisdom,
can the wise man be in love?

O wisdom where art thou?
Dans les yeux du fou,
in the hands of the priest,
in the lines of the professor,
in the sins of the sinner?

Or maybe you are here.
In the steps that I left in the sand.
Just behind me.

(inspired by a quotation of E.F. Schumacher cited by Cédric Chavanne)

The importance of becoming against all odds

"To be free is nothing, to become free is very heaven."
Fichte, untraced, quoted in The Roots of Romanticism, The Restrained Romantics, by Isaiah Berlin

Berlin explains that "Fichte's whole notion is that man is a kind of continuous action [...]. In order to rise to his full height he must constantly go on generating and creating." (ibid, The Restrained Romantics). He continues by saying that "[Y]ou felt yourself properly only in a moment of resistance or opposition" (ibid, Unbridled Romanticism).

Thus, a romantic has to be active. He has to be not only when the world prevents him to do so, but also when his goal is unreachable. If he can reach his goal, the combat is not worthy. The romantic can fully experience life only when he tries to climb an impossible summit. Only in this situation, he will be able - indeed will be obliged - to express the fullness of her or his heart. Fichte's quotation and Berlin's explanations remind me the poetic lyrics of Mano Solo, a french-speaking singer, in Le Monde Entier:

"Si tu m'avais demandé, moi je t'aurai dit
Que dans la vie ce qui compte
c'est pas l'issue mais c'est le combat"

or André Gorz speaking of writing in Lettre à D., histoire d'un amour:

"Ce n'est pas ce qu'il écrit qui est le but premier de l'écrivain. Son besoin premier est d'écrire."

See also this quotation from Gandhi (in French) from Cedric's blog.