On the Heights of Skepticism & Stoicism - The Laughing Lions

"To take into the inmost shrine of the soul the irresistible forces whose puppets we seem to be -- Death and change, the irrevocableness of the past, and the powerlessness of man before the blind hurry of the universe from vanity to vanity -- to feel these things and know them is to conquer them."
Bertrand Russell

"Great is he, who conquers the frightful. Sublime is he, who, while succumbing to it, fears it not."
Philosopher Schiller

I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still.
Albert Camus L'Étranger

"If we spend time in it [the vast spaces of nature], they may help us to accept more graciously the great, unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust."
(Alain de Botton)

"Whatever my fate, I'll go to it laughing."
— Herman Melville
A young shepherd I saw, writhing, gagging, in spasms, his face distorted, and a heavy black snake hung out of his mouth. Had I ever seen so much nausea and pale dread on one face? He seemed to have been asleep when the snake crawled into his throat, and there bit itself fast. My hand tore at the snake and tore in vain; it did not tear the snake out of his throat. Then it cried out of me; "Bite! Bite its head off! Bite!" Thus it cried out of me — my dread, my hatred, my nausea, my pity, all that is good and wicked in me cried out of me with a single cry.

The shepherd, however, bit as my cry counseled him; he bit with a good bite. Far away he spewed the head of the snake — and he jumped up. No longer shepherd. no longer human — one changed, radiant, laughing! Never yet on earth has a human being laughed as he laughed! O my brothers, I heard a laughter that was no human laughter; and now a thirst gnaws at me, a longing that never grows still. My longing for this laughter gnaws at me; oh, how do I bear to go on living! And how could I bear to die now!
Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra

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[bonnie43uk]

I've just noticed the number of views on this video, .. 666, .. now, if i was religiously superstitious I might read something into that, .. maybe that Christopher Hitchens was satanic. But, thankfully I'm not. Great video.

[mythmanjay]

Goo goo g`joob ... That's what I hate about religionists (@hotforwords might tell you that 'religion' is rooted in 'read again'): that they take their fictional stories as 'scientific' predictions of what will happen (I was going to say 'prophetic' predictions, but ... well, they ARE 'prophetic' predictions; it's just that Christians fail to understand what that means---it's metaphor for 'the way things always go')

[JahJah920]

I'm so glad we still have the voice of Christopher Hitchens

" That is the only conversation worth having, and whether it goes on after I die, I don't know, but I do know its the conversation I want to have while I'm still alive"

Thank you, Mr Hitchens. You're immortal in the words you left behind.

[JahJah920]

Beautiful video

[someThinkingApe]

I could get lost in a deserted island for forty years and then return to civilization, and still can recognize the voice of Christopher Hitchens.

[PlanetBongoSan]

This was great :) Who is speaking about meat with a beat, spam with a plan etc? I'd love to hear the full clip, whoever it is... thanks for your work here, i really enjoyed ^^

[notaboob27]

Thank you.

[PapaWilk]

This is wonderful! I wonder what kind of conversation Alan Watts and Christopher Hitchens would have... Thanks for the upload, PP!

[Bhags7]

Thanks PP I enjoyed this.

[Akhotnik]

It's always a pleasure to see a PP video in my sub box. Welcome back and thanks for your time!