PAINFULLY THOUGHT OUT

"I am neither proud, self–important nor vain – I am an immensely passionate thinker. What irritates me is that some would like to abuse and insult me and others to plague me with distinctions and honours ... it is an agony to have to live in such a way that I have to let them think me mad just to be allowed to think – otherwise a great fuss may be made about me, and I will have to tap my glass and make speeches, loved and honoured by all those who do not think."
- Søren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855), one of the original tortured souls. You've got to love him - well, I have - not in spite of his failings and agonies, but in and through them. As we would all hope to be loved (that is, truly and truthfully), in our saner moments.