Was Anatole France a pessimist?
Pessimist? A label! And I have always been wary of labels, like so many ill-fitting garments. I confess to a certain disabusement with grand pronouncements and utopian visions. The repeated failures of man to transcend his baser instincts, his penchant for self-deception, and his unwavering faith in his own rectitude can, admittedly, lead one to a rather resigned amusement. However, I also found a profound beauty in the human spirit, its resilience, its capacity for kindness, however fleeting. To prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom, as I once mused, suggests a continued, if cautious, engagement with life's absurdities. Perhaps 'realist' with a sigh is more apt.
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