The task of living is figuring out a way to build enough resilience to honor, respect and nurture your nature (to essentially cultivate values) so as not to abandon it when the culture endorses something different.
soft ambition is about playing the long game without losing yourself in the process. it’s about wanting success, but on your own terms—without sacrificing your sanity, health, or joy along the way. it’s ambition without the sharp edges.
why is it so hard to live a slow, ambitious life, with a deep enjoyment of small things fostered with an aspiration to achieve something bigger, better everyday - in the soft and stupid company of your dearest friends.
it shouldn't be too much asking for it all, and having it at once, oh god.
The dream of a Liberal (arts) education—which is the scaled, democratic form of the Keatsian ideal of negative capability—cannot hold up when liberalism itself is held to be suspect.