X-Message-Number: 30156 From: Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:57:43 EST Subject: Unamuno Content-Language: en Unamuno Looking for ways to promote cryonics beyond cold logic? We (including the Venturists) could do worse than to direct attention to Miguel de Unamuno, a writer of poetry and lyrical prose, who in his time (roughly a century ago) was called the greatest living Spanish writer. His magnum opus was THE TRAGIC SENSE OF LIFE, and following are a few snippets, some in paraphrase: *Knowledge is not for the sake of knowledge, nor truth for the sake of truth but for the sake of real people. *The real starting point of all philosophy is self-love, the effort to persist in one s own being. The longing not to die, as Spinoza said, is our essence and the affective basis of all knowledge. *If we all believed we could avoid death, we should all be better. * Love thy neighbor as thyself presupposes that you love yourself. *I am given reasons against immortality, but it is not with reasons that the heart is appeased. *To live is not my right, but it is my necessity. *The age of greatest intellectual grandeur was that of Lucretius man alone without gods. *In time, all human consciousness will cease to exist wherefore, then, your consolations? *I will not abdicate my life my life must be wrested from me. *Walpole said life is comedy for those who think, and tragedy for those who feel. Even so, better to feel. *The supreme human need is the need of not dying. *Serenity is not my end, but disquiet and passionate striving. *Despair is the master of impossibilities. *May God deny you peace, but give you glory! Robert Ettinger **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=30156