The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out.
There are brambles in the path? Then go around them.
That's all you need to know. Nothing more. Don't demand to know "why such things exist." Anyone who understands the world will laugh at you, just as a carpenter would if you seemed shocked at finding sawdust in his workshop, or a shoemaker at scraps of leather left over from work.
Of course, they have a place to dispose of these; nature has no door to sweep things out of. But the wonderful thing about its workmanship is how, faced with that limitation, it takes everything within it that seems broken, old and useless, transforms it into itself, and makes new things from it. So that it doesn't need material from any outside source, or anywhere to dispose of what's left over. It relies on itself for all it needs: space, material, and labor.
Added in 2026
Appears in
Along the same lines
- The Fear of Missing Outan essay
- Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen…Epictetus
- Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.Marcus Aurelius
- It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.Seneca
- You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never…Albert Camus
- Concentrate every minute like a Roman—like a man—on doing what’s in front of you with precise an…Marcus Aurelius
Added in 2026