Don’t Search for Truth

From a distance a mountain dominates the landscape and makes it seem charming and significant. Having thought this for a long time we suppose that whatever bestows so much charm must itself also be charming. But when we climb the mountain we are disappointed. Suddenly the mountain and surrounding landscape have lost their magic. We had forgotten that some greatness and goodness can be beheld only from a distance and only from below, otherwise it makes no impression. Perhaps you know people who see themselves only from a distance and find themselves attractive and robust. Self-knowledge is strictly inadvisable for persons of this kind, but they make good directors for power and cell-phone companies.