krebscycle

If we believe we came out of the universe, not it out of us, we must admit that we do not know what we are talking about when we speak of brute matter. We do know that a certain complex of energies can wag its tail and another can make syllogisms. These are among the powers of the unknown, and if, as may be, it has still greater powers that we cannot understand … why should we not be content? Why should we employ the energy that is furnished to us by the cosmos to defy it and to shake our fist at the sky? It seems silly…. That the universe has in it more than we understand, that the private soldiers have not been told the plan of campaign, or even that there is one … has no bearing on our conduct. We still shall fight-all of us because we want to live, some, at least, because we want to realize our spontaneity and prove our powers, for the joy of it, and we may leave to the unknown the supposed final valuation of that which in any event has value to us. It is enough for us that the universe has produced us and has within it, as less than it, all that we believe and love.

Oliver Holmes, quoted in Eddie S. Glaude Jr.. In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America (p. 33)

And

“Master, we come to entreat you to tell us why so strange an animal as man has been formed?”

“Why do you trouble your head about it?” said the dervish; “is it any business of yours?”

“But, Reverend Father,” said Candide, “there is a horrible deal of evil on the earth.”

“What signifies it,” said the dervish, “whether there is evil or good? When His Highness sends a ship to Egypt does he trouble his head whether the rats in the vessel are at their ease or not?”

“What must then be done?” said Pangloss.

Voltaire, Candide.

And

Baby Suggs’s practical wisdom rewrites William James’s formulation at the end of “The Will to Believe.” Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes…. If death ends all, we cannot meet death better. Know it, but go on out the yard. Go on.

Eddie S. Glaude Jr.. In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America (p. 44).