Little Time for Reflection, but Still Holding Out Hope
Karl Jaspers:
It is not easy to describe things here. It is a life of irreality. I’m eaten up by day-to-day chores. Reflection withers. I find myself slipping into a modern life ruled by haste. Things can’t go on this way. There seems to be no place at all for real thought. But we know that life goes on in spite of it all, even in famine, which has not touched us at all yet. Every day I say to myself: Patience, just be patient. Don’t be discouraged, no matter what. If we do what we can, the rewarding moments are bound to return.
A letter to Hannah Arendt, 12 March 1946; in Correspondence: Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers, p. 34