Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock. I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and feeling, but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death -- a state which I feared yet did not understand. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
About This Quote

The idea that the mind can be overcome is a frightening one. There are many things in life that cause us to suffer and pain is one of them. Knowledge is a strange thing, it sticks to us when we least expect it. Even though we know that knowledge causes suffering, we still seek out knowledge with the expectation that it will make us happy. The mind takes hold of knowledge like a lichen on an exposed rock.

Source: Frankenstein

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