When one begins to reflect on philosophyโthen philosophy seems to us to be everything, like God, and love. It is a mystical, highly potent, penetrating ideaโwhich ceaselessly drives us inward in all directions. The decision to do philosophyโto seek philosophy is the act of self-liberationโthe thrust toward ourselves.
NovalisSometimes with the most intense pain a paralysis of sensibility occurs. The soul disintegrates--hence the deadly frost--the free power of the mind--the shattering, ceaseless wit of this kind of despair. There is no inclination for anything any more--the person is alone, like a baleful power--as he has no connection with the rest of the world he consumes himself gradually--and in accordance with his own principle he is--misanthropic and misotheos.
Novalis