"Man's greatest tragedy is that he can conceive of a perfection which he cannot attain." -- Byron
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
Meh. Only as long as you allow "conceive" to mean fanciful concepts full of holes and contradictions. There's no such thing as perfection. Any idea which seems perfect is just insufficiently understood.
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Replying to @atthatmatt
Byron was a poet, not a logician. He's basically saying that we are taunted by our dreams - that we can imagine a far better world (e.g. one in which no one suffers), but that this will always be beyond our reach. We are thus forever reminded of what we can't have
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
Ya, I get that. I'm saying that the dream's taunting power varies inversely with our understanding of the idea. I'm not taunted by a world with dragons because dragons aren't a thing. Same as not being taunted by a Utopia or Eden or Paradise or whatever.
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Replying to @atthatmatt
Then I'd say you're probably quite unique. As far as I can tell, pretty much everyone fantasises about things that can never be.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
Doesn't mean they suffer. Most fantasies reduce suffering. They only torment when you accidentally trip and fall into the belief that fantasies are real. Most people are sensible enough to watch their step.
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"They only torment when you accidentally trip and fall into the belief that fantasies are real." Byron's point is that it is precisely because you know that fantasies are *not* real that causes the tragedy (not necessarily torment).
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