"Depression, angst, a refusal to eat, and so forth, are taken without exception to be marks of a pathological condition, and are treated accordingly. In many cases, however, these phenomena are indications of a deeper, more immediate experience of what life is all about, bitter fruits of the genius of the mind or emotion, which is at the root of every antibiological tendency. It is not the soul that is ill, but its defense mechanism that either fails or is abjured because it is considered—correctly—as a betrayal of man's most potent gift."
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trans. Peter Reed & David Rothenberg, page 4
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Wessel_Zapffe
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Peter Wessel Zapffe
Peter Wessel Zapffe (18 December 1899 – 12 October 1990) was a Norwegian metaphysician, author, lawyer and mountaineer, noted for his philosophically pessimistic and fatalistic view of human existence.
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