I'm wearing my Bob Dylan mask

"The seeds of big animals contain little animals; through the process of conception these take on new clothing (so to speak) which they make their own, and which gives them the means to feed and to grow, so as to pass onto a larger state and propagate the larger animal. Human sperm are animals that are not rational and don't become so until conception settles a human nature on them. And just as no animals completely come into existence when they are conceived or generated, so none go completely out of existence in what we call their death; for it is only reasonable that what doesn't begin naturally should not end naturally either. What happens at death is that the animal throws off its mask or its tattered costume and returns to a smaller stage, where it can still be just as sensible and as orderly as it was on the larger one." G.W. Leibniz, Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason

Hm.

Also, there's this-

"Thus our happiness won't and shouldn't ever consist in a mind-numbing complete enjoyment with nothing left to desire, but rather in a perpetual progression towards new pleasures and new perfections." (Leibniz)

Vs.

"It's kind of nice to exist less, to live withing the limits of what's bearable and not worry as much about what else there is or how life must be made better." (Radin)

And I don't fucking know; Kundera calls the shots around these parts--

"..flung into the world's misery, man sees that the only clear and reliable value is the pleasure, however paltry, that he can feel for himself: a gulp of cool water, a look at the sky (at God's windows), a caress." Milan Kundera, Slowness