The Human Condition

Contradictions and chaos, the poet Alexander Pope (1688—1744) taught us, are part of the human condition:

Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd,
Still by himself abused or disabus'd
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all,
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd,
The glory, jest and riddle of the world.