The service of philosophy, of speculative culture towards the human spirit, is to rouse, to startle it to a life of constant and eager observation.
Every moment some form grows perfect in land or face; some tone on the hills or the sea is choicer than the rest; some mood or passion or insight or intellectual excitement is irresistibly real and attractive to us--for that moment only. Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself...
How should we pass most swiftly from point to point and be present always at the focus where the greatest number of vital forces unite in their purest energy?
To burn always with [this] hard, gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy is success in life.
Walter Pater (1919)
Thanks to Joseph Prabhu in The Rhythm of Being
