Three passions

Three passions have governed my life: 


The longings for love, the search for knowledge, 

And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind]. 

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness. 


In the union of love I have seen 


In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision 


Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined. 

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. 


I have wished to understand the hearts of [people]. 
 

I have wished to know why the stars shine. 

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens, 
 

But always pity brought me back to earth; 
 

Cries of pain reverberated in my heart 
 

Of children in famine, of victims tortured 
 

And of old people left helpless. 
 

I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, 
 

And I too suffer. 

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

~Bertrand Russell