An old notebook of the present

I think it was Henry Miller who said that we don't have to make earth a paradise, it already is one, we just have to make ourselves fit to live in it.

Somewhere Nietzsche wrote, "our descriptions are better, but we do not explain any more than our predecessors." I'd written this in one of my old notebooks, failing to note which Nietzche text I was reading at the time, and so not able now to attest to its attribution, but am pretty sure that he was referring to previous stages of mankind's history. 

I'm very glad I've kept almost all of my old notebooks, beginning from the late 1970's. They're oddly consoling now.

The thought came to me last night that democracy is best considered not so much as a form of government but as a concept that gives us just enough to believe in, teasing us toward our better natures. The moment I wrote this in my notebook I became calmer, less worried about present political circumstances.