John Keats wrote: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, and that is all you know on earth and all you need to know." Yeah, right.
Great writers and artists like Shakespeare feel very truthful because they seem to know everything about life. I know a lot about mathematics and geography and such, but how much do I know about life?
I've been learning Greek in recent years and get the impression that even in ancient times Greeks knew a lot about life and truth. I'm impressed by all the Greek idioms for futility, like "spitting at the heavens" and "singing the encomium before the victory" and "sowing the ocean" and "teaching a horse to run to the plains." I recall that in Captain Corelli's Mandolin the Greek woman's father said, "Love is what's left when being in love burns away."
Paradoxically, I find that the more I learn, the less I feel like I know. I suppose that's wisdom.
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