El hombre nunca sabe qué debe querer, porque vive sólo una vida y no tiene modo de compararla con sus vidas precedentes ni de enmendarla con sus vidas posteriores.

We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.

But man, because he has only one life to live, cannot conduct experiments to test whether to follow his passion (compassion) or not.

Human life occurs only once, and the reason we cannot determine which of our decisions are good and which bad is that in a given situation we can make only one decision; we are not granted a second, third, or fourth life in which to compare various decisions.

La vida humana acontece sólo una vez y por eso nunca podremos averiguar cuáles de nuestras decisiones fueron correctas y cuáles fueron incorrectas. En la situación dada sólo hemos podido decidir una vez y no nos ha sido dada una segunda, una tercera, una cuarta vida para comparar las distintas decisiones.

"L'homme ne peut jamais savoir ce qu'il faut vouloir car il n'a qu'une vie et il ne peut ni la comparer à des vies antérieures ni la rectifier dans des vies ultérieures. (...) Il n'existe aucun moyen de vérifier quelle décision est la bonne car il n'existe aucune comparaison. Tout est vécu tout de suite pour la première fois et sans préparation. Comme si un acteur entrait en scène sans avoir jamais répété. Mais que peut valoir la vie, si la première répétition de la vie est déjà la vie même ? C'est ce qui fait que la vie ressemble toujours à une esquisse. Mais même "esquisse" n'est pas le mot juste, car une esquisse est toujours l'ébauche de quelque chose, la préparation d'un tableau, tandis que l'esquisse qu'est notre vie est une esquisse de rien, une ébauche sans tableau. (partie I, ch. 3)"

The end of man is knowledge, but there is one thing he can't know.

He remained annoyed with himself until he realized that not knowing what he wanted was actually quite natural. We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can never compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.

No man is invincible, and therefore no man can fully understand that which would make him invincible

"I perceive I have not really understood any thing, not a single object, and that no man ever can."

-from "As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life"

Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.

One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole

As a human being, I know I can never hope to have the depth and breadth of perspective to know whether any of my actions will ultimately harm or heal.

Every man has two lives, and the second starts when he realizes he has just one