The Torment of High Aspiration

Never has a human being been afflicted with anything greater than the loftiness of his aspiration. For one whose ambition is elevated seeks the highest ideals; yet time may not aid him, and his means may grow weak, so he remains in a state of torment. I myself have been granted a share of this lofty ambition, and thus I suffer because of it. Yet I do not say, “Would that it had not been so,” for life is made pleasant only in proportion to the absence of intellect, and the rational person does not choose an increase in pleasure at the expense of reason. Whoever is endowed with high aspiration is afflicted in proportion to its height, as the poet has said: وَإِذا كانَتِ النُفوسُ كِباراً * تَعِبَت في مُرادِها الأَجسامُ When souls are ambitious, the bodies grow weary in achieving those ambitions. [Ibn Al-Jawzī, Ṣayd Al-Khāṭir]