A man who wants you to know that he does not “take himself seriously,” takes himself quite seriously. No one has ever seen an actual humble man…he would pass all notice.
Thought symbolically puts physical objects in conflict so as to make comparisons, which can lead to practical action. When not engaged in such profitable affairs, it puts people’s ideas into conflict – for no other reason than entertainment.
Forget about opposed thumbs, tools and culture; what makes man singular is that he is the only species in which one creature tries to tell another one how to live its life.
There are two ways to judge, “how goes the life of man”: by watching, and by listening. That is, by watching how men actually live their lives, compared to listening to what they say about how they do.
Ordinary men are forever proffering that prayer, worship, charitable acts, are man’s best non-physical, (that is), spiritual nourishment. Which is an unwitting, round-about way of saying that: thought is its own best nourishment. It is in fact, its only source of nourishment, but made much, much richer, entertaining and useful when this fact is realized.
J.