Tweet 8/4/16

By Anonymous

An animal that is attacked either in its own self, or in those things that are especially dear to it, does not calculate whether it can or cannot resist, whether resistance will be of any use or not, whether it would be better to yield, whether the danger is great or small, whether the forces balance out, whether resisting could cause it greater harm, etc., but resists immediately, and fights with all the forces it can muster, even though it be a very small force against a very great one. Disturb a hen with her chicks and she will launch herself at you with beak and claws, and will do you all the damage she can....It is shameful that calculation renders us less high-minded, less courageous than the beasts. From this, one can grasp just how much the great art of computation, so characteristic of our own times, enhances and fosters the greatness of deeds, acts, life, events, minds, and men.
—Giacomo Leopardi

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