Everywhere people seek to smooth life's edges. Instead of riding its violent waves, they seek to transform them into a tepid swimming pool suitable for gentle laps without the least chance of drowning. They cling desperately onto old religions when they talk about enlightenment but mean only quietude, when they preach transcendence but mean only escape. What petty bargains with existence! This is not wisdom, but cowardice masquerading as enlightenment. They seek to tame, diminish, and bridle everything that should be wild! What is this if not a rejection of life itself? Life, which knows nothing of balance but only of tension, nothing of peace but only of creative strife! What sickness entices you to paddle in the shallows instead of making infinite demands on life and always finding yourself in some new wilderness? For "life consists with wildness, and the most alive is the wildest."

Wonderful read

The Alchemist and His Quicksilver