“Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.”

– Voltaire

I’ve been continuing on my introspective path, doing a lot of reading and thinking. And, this year, after almost 20 years of dabbling, I’ve finally made time for a daily yoga practice. It’s interesting how my day seems to flow more smoothly on days when I’ve had a “good” practice and seems to move in fits and starts on days when it was “bad.”

All this pejorative thinking is hard to root out. I know I’m not supposed to get attached to it being one way or the other, but I really do like those good days! On top of that, I think I’m attached to being attached. Clearly I haven’t got the hang of it.

I’ve been reflecting on the Voltaire quote above. On the surface it seems like good advice–don’t wallow, you’ll make it worse. I wish I could identify the source. My guess is it comes from a story, like “Candide” and is a philosophic expression of one of the characters. If this is the case, is it Voltaire’s philosophy or the character’s?

I’m thinking in particular of the character of Pangloss, whose philosophy is that everything always happens for the good in the best of all possible worlds. I always understood that Voltaire thought Pangloss was a bit of a dunderhead, but now I’m not so sure.

I think I need to re-read “Candide,” and maybe a biography of Voltaire.