In Rousseau we encounter a walking ego, naked sensibility. Feeling triumphs over intellectual argument in his works, which are both deeply stirring and deeply inconsistent....

Schopenhauer, the philosopher of pessimism, makes it very plain that he regards the world and our life in it as a bad joke....

Spinoza's system and conclusions have compelling beauty unequaled in the history of philosophy....

We see our age as the greatest in human history, filled with seemingly unending originality. Yet such dynamism is not a necessary characteristic of great eras....