“Freedom from all aim, from all limits, belongs to the nature of the will, which is an endless striving. […] Every attained end is also the beginning of a new course, and so on ad infinitum. […] Eternal becoming, endless flux, characterises the revelation of the inner nature of will. […] [Our endeavors and desires] always delude us by presenting their satisfaction as the final end of will. As soon as we attain to them, they no longer appear the same, and therefore they soon grow stale, are forgotten, and though not openly disowned, are yet always thrown aside as vanished illusions. We are fortunate enough if there still remains something to wish for and to strive after, that the game may be kept up of constant transition from desire to satisfaction, and from satisfaction to a new desire, the rapid course of which is called happiness, and the slow course sorrow, and does not sink into that stagnation that shows itself in fearful ennui that paralyses life, vain yearning without a definite object, deadening languor. According to all this, when the will is enlightened by knowledge, it always knows what it wills now and here, never what it wills in general; every particular act of will has its end, the whole will has none.”
