The thinking human being

There is no exercise of the intellect which is not, in the final analysis, useless. A philosophical doctrine begins as a plausible description of the universe; with the passage of years it becomes a mere chapter—if not a paragraph or a name—in the history of philosophy.

Thinking, analyzing, inventing are not anomalous acts; they are the normal respiration of the intelligence.

Every man should be capable of all ideas.

—Jorge Luis Borges, “Pierre Menard”